I've been studying MPAs and why they're being pushed so hard internationally and in Canada as well for the last nine years and I've been very diligent about trying to understand. My opinion on it is that for the most part—and I've said this in my brief—it's been oversold as a conservation objective process. It doesn't often do what people say it's supposed to do. That being said, the train left a long time ago on this, and I know that I'm not going to influence that 5% and 10%; that's going to happen. The best that I could do, as someone who has worked on the ocean for the last 50 years and who represents coastal communities and small-boat fleets, is to try to have as much impact as possible on where they go and how they're done, and if there are going to be negative social and economic impacts, that they be recognized and dealt with. I don't believe that they do.... It's taken a while but there's a lot of evidence coming out now coming out—and Dr. Sean Cox talked about it quite a bit—that in fact there could be negative consequences to biodiversity depending on how these things are put in place.
On September 28th, 2017. See this statement in context.