IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/marpol/v63y2016icp53-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Canada at a crossroad: The imperative for realigning ocean policy with ocean science

Author

Listed:
  • Bailey, Megan
  • Favaro, Brett
  • Otto, Sarah P.
  • Charles, Anthony
  • Devillers, Rodolphe
  • Metaxas, Anna
  • Tyedmers, Peter
  • Ban, Natalie C.
  • Mason, Taylor
  • Hoover, Carie
  • Duck, Thomas J.
  • Fanning, Lucia
  • Milley, Chris
  • Cisneros-Montemayor, Andrés M.
  • Pauly, Daniel
  • Cheung, William W.L.
  • Cullis-Suzuki, Sarika
  • Teh, Louise
  • Sumaila, U. Rashid

Abstract

Canada's ocean ecosystem health and functioning is critical to sustaining a strong maritime economy and resilient coastal communities. Yet despite the importance of Canada's oceans and coasts, federal ocean policy and management have diverged substantially from marine science in the past decade. In this paper, key areas where this is apparent are reviewed: failure to fully implement the Oceans Act, alterations to habitat protections historically afforded under Canada's Fisheries Act, and lack of federal leadership on marine species at risk. Additionally, the capacity of the federal government to conduct and communicate ocean science has been eroded of late, and this situation poses a significant threat to current and future oceans public policy. On the eve of a federal election, these disconcerting threats are described and a set of recommendations to address them is developed. These trends are analyzed and summarized so that Canadians understand ongoing changes to the health of Canada's oceans and the role that their elected officials can play in addressing or ignoring them. Additionally, we urge the incoming Canadian government, regardless of political persuasion, to consider the changes we have documented and commit to aligning federal ocean policy with ocean science to ensure the health of Canada's oceans and ocean dependent communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Bailey, Megan & Favaro, Brett & Otto, Sarah P. & Charles, Anthony & Devillers, Rodolphe & Metaxas, Anna & Tyedmers, Peter & Ban, Natalie C. & Mason, Taylor & Hoover, Carie & Duck, Thomas J. & Fanning,, 2016. "Canada at a crossroad: The imperative for realigning ocean policy with ocean science," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 53-60.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:marpol:v:63:y:2016:i:c:p:53-60
    DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2015.10.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X15002869
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.marpol.2015.10.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schultz, Jessica A. & Darling, Emily S. & Côté, Isabelle M., 2013. "What is an endangered species worth? Threshold costs for protecting imperilled fishes in Canada," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 125-132.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Courtois, Pierre & Figuières, Charles & Mulier, Chloe, 2019. "A Tale of Two Diversities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 133-147.
    2. James Macaskill & Patrick Lloyd‐Smith, 2022. "Six decades of environmental resource valuation in Canada: A synthesis of the literature," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 70(1), pages 73-89, March.
    3. Daniel Fortin & Philip D McLoughlin & Mark Hebblewhite, 2020. "When the protection of a threatened species depends on the economy of a foreign nation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-13, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:marpol:v:63:y:2016:i:c:p:53-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/marpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.