Northern Vancouver Island Federal Conservative Party candidate Aaron Gunn wants to sink plans for a network of Indigenous-led marine protected areas on the West Coast.
A month before announcing his bid in September 2023 to become the North Island-Powell River candidate, the right-wing social media personality from Victoria released a YouTube video taking aim at the B.C. Northern Shelf Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network, better known as the Great Bear Sea MPA Network.
After nearly two decades of negotiations, the conservation project – which involves more than a dozen coastal First Nations, the province, and the federal government – was endorsed in February 2023. The network is a string of individual conservation sites that will preserve hotspots of biodiversity, endangered species, important ecosystems and areas of cultural significance to First Nations along B.C.’s northern coast.
Gunn’s video, titled “No Fishing Allowed: Trudeau’s plan to decimate an entire industry,” interviews some Vancouver Island prawn and halibut fish harvesters and seafood processors. The crux of Gunn’s argument is the MPA network is an arbitrary, unilateral, politically motivated move by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to shut down commercial and recreational fishing on the West Coast to appease the “agenda of radical environmentalists.” Gunn asserts there is no environmental or scientific merit, while the plan throws hard-working Canadians under the bus.
None of the 17 First Nation leaders who have been involved in identifying the key conservation areas in their territories were interviewed for the video, nor were biologists, provincial marine planners or Fisheries and Ocean Canada staff involved in the project.
Gunn has refused repeated interview requests by Canada National Observer. Federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre's office did not respond to clarify if Gunn’s stance on the Great Bear Sea network is official party policy, or if the Conservatives intend to honour Canada’s international commitment to protect 30 per cent of the country's lands and waters by 2030.
Dallas Smith, president of the Na̲nwak̲olas Council, which includes six coastal nations, said the Great Bear Sea network is a collaborative, nuanced approach to marine conservation that seeks to protect at-risk ecosystems while supporting fishing and coastal communities.
Conservative rhetoric in the run-up to the federal election poses some challenges but won’t undo the continued work on the marine conservation network, he said.
“It's getting politicized like a political football again, but we’ve been doing this long enough that we’re sort of used to it,” Smith said.
“First Nations have taken the lead [on the Great Bear Sea] and we’re willing to work with elected officials, but we’re not here to convince them of the direction we’re going in when it comes to the protection of our territories.”
The MPA project involves ongoing discussions with coastal communities and the fishing and seafood sectors, he said.
“We’re going to continue to work together to make sure that fishing is sustainably done with both an ecological and economic lens.”
Some – not all – fishing limited
The MPA network doesn’t abolish fishing in all the conservation sites, but there will be some no-take zones to preserve the marine life being protected — for example, fragile corals or rare glass sponge reefs that can be destroyed by contact with fishing gear or anchors. Eighty-five per cent of the areas will be open to fishing, said Christine Smith-Martin, CEO of Coastal First Nations.
Harvesters may also have to fish at different times or employ methods and gear types depending on whether the goal is to protect at-risk species like whales or declining stocks like herring.
Smith-Martin said marine conservation network will complement the world-renowned Great Bear Rainforest conservation area on B.C.’s central coast.
The Great Bear Rainforest and the investments leveraged from conservation funding have acted as an economic engine in the region, generating more than 1,000 jobs and 130 businesses in manufacturing, conservation, and ecotourism sectors, she said. The Great Bear Sea conservation project will do the same and is expected to create an additional 3,000 jobs and 200 enterprises over the next two decades, Smith-Martin said.
The Northern Shelf Bioregion that runs along the coast from northern Vancouver Island to Alaska is vast, but protected areas will be less than a third of that area and 60 per cent of those sites are already existing conservation areas.
In all, it’s anticipated the network's fishing restrictions, which will be phased in over time, will impact eight per cent of the landed value of fisheries on the B.C. coast, Smith-Martin said. “These aren’t just areas we chose at random,” she said. “These are areas that are very critical to the habitats within our communities and our communities have been working 20 plus years to develop these marine plans.”
‘Simply a lie’
Daniel Pauly, an ocean fisheries expert at the University of British Columbia, disputes the assertion in Gunn’s video that there’s no science that marine protected areas improve fishing.
“The notion that marine protected areas don't work and that they harm the fishery and fishes is simply a lie.”
MPAs protect biodiversity, rebuild fish stocks, prevent overfishing and can protect First Nations access to traditional food and protect important cultural sites, as guaranteed by the Constitution, Pauly said.
Many fish stocks on the West Coast, like herring, salmon and rockfish, are extremely vulnerable to overfishing and need to be rebuilt, Pauly said.
“Even if you fish optimally, a fish stock goes down,” he said. “When a marine protected area is created, the fish bounce back, and then they start getting exported out of that area.”
Selective fishing that targets a specific catch is typically not banned in marine protected areas. However, trawl fishing, when boats drag wide nets or other gear that contacts the seafloor, is extremely destructive because it churns up sediment and harms sponges, fishes and other animals, he said.
“Usually trawlers are the first to be banned when you're serious about protecting the ocean,” Pauly said.
Smith-Martin said she’s confident that those supporting the Great Bear Sea initiative will be able to educate any future government about the value of protected areas.
“We’re identifying critical habitat that needs to be protected, not only for our grandchildren, but also commercial fishermen, sports fishermen,” she said.
“That's why we're really doing a lot of this work.”
