November 16, 2010
VANCOUVER -- Fishing is allowed in all but one per cent of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) on Canada's Pacific coast, according to a study conducted by Living Oceans Society and published in Marine Policy this month. This is in spite of the fact that over half of the MPAs are rated as "strictly protected" and are intended to prohibit all fishing.
"Marine Protected Areas should be safe havens where species can regenerate, but the great majority of our MPAs are really just paper parks that offer almost nothing in the way of ocean conservation or sustainable fisheries," says Kim Wright, Living Oceans Society's Marine Planning and Protected Areas Campaign Manager.
