Evidence of meeting #54 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mpa.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
I was wondering if you had a few examples. I understand the fisheries officers would play a role in that.
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Ecosystems and Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We can find some and provide them to you.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Do you have any examples right now about how they would? How do they cover such an extensive area, and MPAs being part of that ocean network?
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Ecosystems and Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
By boat and by plane, also.
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Ecosystems and Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We do have planes.
Director General, Oceans and Fisheries Policy, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Some of our marine protected areas are right next to the coast and as part of the management plan there is a community monitoring and reporting. Examples of that would be Basin Head in Prince Edward Island or Musquash in New Brunswick. For MPAs that are further offshore, as Philippe said we integrate that into our conservation and protection program. We do use tools such as aerial surveillance, but I think more important are the vessel monitoring systems, so all fishing vessels above a certain length have transponders on board and we're able to monitor them. We use that mainly for search and rescue purposes but we can also use it for enforcement purposes. If we find that a fishing vessel is in an area that's ostensibly closed under the Oceans Act we can use that data and inform our enforcement actions.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
The reason I'm asking is, over the last 10 years or so there has been quite a significant reduction in resources to allow monitoring and enforcement. It wasn't a rhetorical question, it was an actual question of how do you with fewer resources cover the expanse of three coasts of oceans and pick out MPAs and fine-tune and keep those areas...ensuring that that activity isn't happening?
I think an answer a little more descriptive than boats and people is what I'm looking for. Any information you can provide would be helpful, thank you.
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Ecosystems and Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We have also modern tools to do that, but I think Annette wants to add something to that.
Director, Oceans Management, Maritimes Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I just wanted to say that when we do our annual planning in regional offices, what we do here in the Maritimes is we meet with the compliance and enforcement group, the conservation and protection officers. We talk about what the MPA design is, and what the different zones are permitting, and we look for them to provide monitoring as they would in their normal patrol activities. They would report back to us anything that they find. So we actually do go through an annual planning process.
It's not that we necessarily send them out to an MPA, but what we do is look at the areas that they will be patrolling and indicate where those MPAs and zones are that we're looking for feedback on, so that they're aware when they're patrolling that they're entering into and out of MPAs. We've used it as part of our annual planning process in terms of building in the compliance and enforcement component of their work, to look at MPAs when they're going through.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
As I mentioned earlier, at this point, if any of our guests would like to add something else that they forgot to mention or something they would like to clarify, now is the time to do that.
I think, Ms. Daley, you looked like you wanted to get in on the last conversation, so you just did, are you okay?
Director, Oceans Management, Maritimes Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Yes, that was it, thanks.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
Would any of our guests here like to add something else?
On that note, we would like to thank you very much for coming here.
There are two things to clarify. There were two things that were requested. From Mr. Doherty's question, there was economic analysis for each of the MPAs.
Is that correct, Mr. Doherty?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
If we could get that in both languages, that would be great so we can distribute it to the committee.
The second thing is that following Mr. Donnelly's questioning there was a map that Mr. MacDonald mentioned he could provide.
Director General, Oceans and Fisheries Policy, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
It's a map that identified the bioregions of Canada, which is how we do our MPA work.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
There's also no-take information, including the penalties, that was also talked about from Mr. Donnelly's questioning. Could we get that as well?
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Ecosystems and Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We have a list of all the MPAs and what is allowed and what is prohibited in each of them.
Liberal
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Ecosystems and Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Yes. We will do that. Also, there were some questions from Mr. Donnelly on enforcement actions in MPAs—
