The federal government has committed to establishing networks of MPAs covering at least 25% of our oceans by 2025. Progress by all of our governments on creating new MPAs needs to speed up if we are going to meet that commitment.

As a step to meeting that goal, CPAWS is encouraging governments to establish a network of MPAs in the Bay of Fundy. The Bay of Fundy, located between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Ocean, has the world’s highest tides and an abundance of wildlife. In 2011, the Bay of Fundy was Canada’s only candidate in the global campaign to declare the New 7 Natural Wonders of Nature. Over 12 species of whales are drawn to the Bay’s rich upwelling zones, including humpback, fin and the endangered North Atlantic right whale.  Millions of shorebirds flock to the salt marshes and mudflats on the Bay of Fundy shores each year on their long migrations, to fatten up on mud shrimp.

The outer Bay is known for its incredible variety of bottom-dwelling wildlife, from upright sponges, anemones, and sea squirts to cold-water corals. It is also home to large reefs formed by horse mussels. Only a few horse mussel reefs are known to exist in the world and the Bay of Fundy reefs are the largest known. The corals and horse mussel reefs provide protection from currents and predators for thousands of species of fish and invertebrates. This is critically important for protecting our haddock, winter flounder, lobster and herring fisheries.

The Bay of Fundy holds a special place in the hearts of Canadians. You might assume that such a magnificent place, supporting so many fishing communities and tourism businesses, would be properly protected. It’s not.

In the whole Bay of Fundy, there is one small coastal MPA, located around the Musquash Estuary in southern New Brunswick. Even though there is no region-wide ocean conservation plan, the Bay of Fundy is facing increasing new industrial pressures, from coastal mega-quarry proposals and tidal turbines, large open-net aquaculture pens, and coastal development.

All of this activity is threatening the Bay of Fundy’s ecological health before any marine protection measures have been implemented.

To bring fairness to the use of the Bay, a network of MPAs would need to conserve the most ecologically significant areas, with a combination of larger sites in the outer bay and smaller coastal sites closer inland. These would include areas where whales congregate as well as important bird areas, rich mudflats, corals and reefs, and some estuaries.