What’s inside Canada’s largest ever protected area?

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Jordan Heath-Rawlings I have lost count of the number of episodes of this podcast that have focused on some part of Canada’s natural beauty vanishing forever. BC’s old growth forests, Ontario’s Green Belt, polar Ice, or the coastal shore of the Magdalene Island. Just to name a few. Some have been destroyed by our own thirst for more, more money, more oil, more space for more highways and more cars. Others have been lost to the fires. Heat and erosion of a changing climate, which is also driven by us. But that’s beside the. Today’s episode, though is the opposite of that. On a holiday Friday in the spring, we offer you a note of hope, a rather large note. In fact, 133,000 square kilometers large. It’s located about a hundred kilometers off the coast of Vancouver Island and it’s. Of everything from whale to fish to sea creatures to incredible undersea ecosystems like sea mounts and hydrothermal vents, and now it’s all protected. That’s it. It’s done. It’s the biggest protected area in Canada’s history. So instead of discussing what’s vanishing today, let’s talk about what’s not for. I am Jordan Heath-Rawlings. This is the big story. Jimmy Thompson is an award-winning reporter who often covers environmental issues, including this story which he wrote for the narwhal. Hey, Jimmy.

Jimmy Thompson Hello. Thanks for having me back, Jordan.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings You are welcome. It’s always a pleasure. I think we kind of have like a, a good news environment story, which is so rare.

Jimmy Thompson Yeah. It, it, this is definitely one of those cases where I, I haven’t yet found someone who’s like, this is a bad idea.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings Okay. Well let’s start with like the very basics. What is a marine protected area? That’s what we’re gonna talk about today. And where is this new one?

Jimmy Thompson Okay, so a marine protected area is a term that can take on a few different meanings in Canada, but there are four basic minimum standards as they call them, um, that have been established in Canada. So what that means is there’s four sort of. Things that should be prevented in any marine protected area. That’s dumping mining, oil and gas exploration, and bottom contact fishing, so like trawling along the bottom. Those are the things that are, that are generally protected against in a marine protected area. And this one is going to be the largest permanently protected one. There’s another one up in the Arctic that’s slightly bigger, but it’s not yet fully protected, so this will be the largest in.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings And what is significant, uh, aside from obviously being the largest in Canada so far about this particular area, uh, what’s it like? Maybe just take us there. I know you’ve got some, some scenes in your piece with some folks that are visiting it and trying to map it.

Jimmy Thompson That’s the really interesting thing is this is not fully mapped yet. Just like most of the, of the bottom of the ocean in Canada and elsewhere, we don’t really know. You know, you make guesses based on where tectonic plates meet or where River Delta does come out, things like that. But you just don’t know until you actually map it. So there’s been a real frenzy of mapping work happening out there in the last few years since this started being explored and they’ve discover. An amazing amount of stuff. First of all, there, there are three sort of core pieces of this being protected. There are sea mounts, there are deep sea hydrothermal vents, and there are possibly, they think methane seeps are really, really big one, in fact, methane seep, and we can talk about each of those individually. But basically this area encompasses the biggest concentration of. Rare and valuable ecosystems under the ocean. This, this whole thing is under the ocean. There’s not a single island or body of land, um, in, in the whole protected area. This might be a dumb question, but how do you protect an area, uh, that has no land and that, you know, 90, 95% of it we simply can’t watch? That’s a good question. You draw lines around it, and then you, I guess, try to enforce that, and th that it is, it is a challenge because this thing is a hundred kilometers offshore. It’s a hundred kilometers from the nearest point of land, and then it’s a hundred. And 33,000 square kilometers. It’s massive. It’s, it’s several times the size of Vancouver Island. So to protect the whole thing, uh, in terms of actual enforcement is going to be a challenge. But in terms of the legislation, what you do is you say, here’s the things you can’t do in this area. And then you expect that people are going to follow those rules.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings So before we get to the sea mounts and the hydrothermal vents and everything, that makes this area so fascinating, maybe first. It’s become protected. What was it being used for? What has to stop now?

Jimmy Thompson I assume, uh, given its location there was some fishing going on. Yeah, so sea mounts are like oasis in the desert. If you think of the, the, the muddy ocean floor, there are things that can live there, but there’s not a lot that can kind of clinging to that mud and, and echo it in existence. But as soon as you have rocks and cliffs and basically hard, more, Things on the bottom, things can live on that. And, and they do and they proliferate. So you have these ces and urchins and scallops and clams and all kinds of things that will, that will live on that. And then there will be fish and other things that eat those. And then there will be whales and sharks and things that come to visit and eat those too. So, they end up being very, very productive. And so that means, of course, fishers are very shrewd, they’re very capable and very good at what they do. So they find areas that are really productive. And sea mounts are one of those areas. So until recently, you were allowed to bottom contact fish. In other words, you can troll, like, you can scrape the bottom clean of, of anything that you, that, that, that happens to be there, which of course, destroy. Everything in its path. Right? And so that has been banned for a few years in leading up to this actual official announcement. And that will be permanently banned. There is a fear about deep sea mining, which is something we can get into later, but it’s been also not allowed within Canada’s borders yet as well.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings Mm-hmm.

Jimmy Thompson So there are a few really, really destructive activities that are not gonna be allowed oil and gas exploration, um, also, you know, has been done. Canada coasts, especially on the east coast, and that won’t be allowed in this area either. And, and then dumping. So dumping of materials and, and, and different kind of pollutants won’t be allowed in this area, although that’s kind of not that well defined.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings You touched on it a little bit, but now I do want to talk about the sea mounts because I have to say I didn’t understand, uh, until reading your piece, just how incredibly diverse they’re, and I guess this area has a ton of them, like what’s so important about the sea mounts?

Jimmy Thompson Seamounts are really important everywhere, but they just happen to occur here in greater numbers than anywhere else in Canada, uh, really anywhere else. I think in the North Pacific, this is a really special area. A, a few years ago when they started doing this mapping work, They knew about 20 seamounts in the area. Now they know there are 65 seamounts in the area. There might be more, which is incredible. Imagine discovering 45 mountains in the course of, of, uh, a few years, five, seven years. So, seamounts do a couple of things. As I mentioned, they. Have this really important role in providing an anchor site for sea creatures that, that need something to hold onto, uh, which is a lot of them. And then that creates habitat and ecosystems around those creatures. So that’s very important. The other thing that they do, which is really important, is when the currents, the deep sea currents hit these mountain. They do just like what, what wind does when it hits a mountain, it, it goes up, it goes up like a ramp. And so that brings that really nutrient rich, deep sea water up and those, those upwellings they’re called create a ton of productivity at the surface. So you’ve got. The sun, which doesn’t penetrate down to the bottom. You’ve got the sun meeting these nutrients. You get, uh, blooms of plankton and then fish that feed on that and sea birds and whales that feed on them. So very, very rich areas, which is what would’ve drawn the fishers to that area to begin with.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings What about hydrothermal vents? And listen, uh, give me a science lesson like I’m six. What are they?

Jimmy Thompson Deep sea hydrothermal vents are where super heated water rich with minerals is exiting through. Holes in the Earth’s crust. I’m, I’m sure I’m gonna get letters about that from actual deep sea scientists. Uh, and I’m, I’m sorry in advance. That’s generally kind of how I see them. The chemicals coming out of those deep sea thermal hydrothermal vents feed whole communities. And that’s really significant because think of any ecosystem on the planet, any single ecosystem you can think of. What does it run on? Sunlight. Sunlight. Yeah. Sunlight doesn’t reach the bottom of the ocean, right? So these are ecosystems that run without sunlight. Think about that for a second. It’s, it’s amazing. It’s like what you might find on another planet. Well, speaking of being six, I remember, uh, from being around that age, being fascinated by the kind of life you can find in the deep ocean where there is no sunlight and how all forms of life adapt to that. And it’s amazing. These deep sea hydrothermal thermal events are like that on steroids. So you’ve got the deep sea creatures, like those crazy fish with the lanterns on their heads and weird jellies and all that stuff. All that stuff that’s there. But what else is, there are little shrimps that will scoot in and out of the super heated water to try and get some of the, the, of those chemicals and, and then process them before they get boiled alive. And they, they have microbes in their gut that actually. Act solely to convert those chemicals into energy. And then there are clams that don’t have a digestive system because that’s all they do. There are tube worms that are, that are just these explosions of colour way below where colour really means anything at all. It’s, it’s just an unbelievable alien ecosystem. The problem with deep sea hydrothermal vents is they also, because of those minerals that are being expelled by the Earth’s crust right there, they can, uh, accrete or, or they, they can gather up valuable minerals, which puts them in the crosshairs of people that want valuable minerals, which is, you know, all of us, I guess.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings What happens to those vents or in those areas when we start doing deep sea mining. Maybe describe the process.

Jimmy Thompson Deep sea mining is like, you’re seen a combine going through a wheat field.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings Mm-hmm.

Jimmy Thompson Kind of like that, except even more destructive. So if a combine is going across the wheat field and chewing up all the wheat, this would be going through, chewing up all the soil, all the wheat, all the squirrels, all the deer, the people, you know what, whatever happens to get in, its. And that soil that, that everything that’s being chewed up will be refined into valuable men minerals, like nickel or, I think there, there is gold found down there. There are rare earth minerals things that you need for batteries, for electric cars, for laptops, for cell phones. So deep sea mining can be many stories tall, five, seven stories tall, huge, huge structures. The mining will just bulldoze those. It’ll, it’ll turn them into rubble and then it’ll chew up the rubble and there’ll be nothing left is, is how scientists are expecting. This will go if and when Deep sea mining starts to happen in earnest, which is really just around the corner. Hopefully that never happens and it won’t, I guess, in this area at least.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings But in the meantime, I want to talk about who’s coming together to protect this. So it’s obviously, um, the government of Canada. What role do First Nations play in this process? Because I understand this is their territory as well.

Jimmy Thompson Yeah. This is the territory of of three First Nations in the Haida. They’ll be co-managing this area that hasn’t been fully laid out yet. There’s no paperwork yet saying exactly who will do what, so co-management could mean a lot of different things, but they will have a seat at the table. We know that this has been an area that’s been used by those First Nations for wail. Since time in memorial, right. These are, these are coastal first nations. They’re, they would be people that would go out and, and whale and fish in these areas. And more recently they’re, they have now become commercial fishing First Nations as well. So some fishing is going to be allowed in this marine protected area and doubtless the, the First Nations who will co-managing it will be taking part in that. It won’t, it won’t be exclusive of other fisheries as far as I’m aware, but the First Nations I’m sure will be, will be taking part in that. And this is where, uh, I wanna make sure I have it right.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings So they, they decide what kinds of activities are still permitted because this is not just like now a no-go zone, right? They are still going to be doing some fishing, but they’ll be avoiding stripping the sea mounts bear and obviously avoiding going and disturbing the hydrothermal vents. Is that about right?

Jimmy Thompson When you think of a national conservation. You might be thinking of a place like Banff where there are paths and you have to stick on them, and there’s no forestry. There’s no hunting. There’s no mining. Obviously, in national parks, that’s not what this is. This will be an economically open area in some ways, just with a lot more restriction than right next door. So bottom contact, fishing, as I said, will be banned. Midwater trolling, so pulling a giant net through the water that doesn’t touch the bottom will be permitted up to 500 meters deep, holding a hundred meters deep over, over two of the sea mounts that are a bit shallower, but 500 meters deep in most of the, of the marine protected area. That’s, that’s one of the things that’ll be allowed hook in line fishing. So fishing for things like tuna or stable fish or rockfish, those will be allowed with the same kind of restrictions about 500 meters. So, This is not being fenced off. And, and, and no one gets to go there and no one can study it and no one can fish in it. That’s, that’s not what’s happening. This will be a compromise. Let’s focus on the research cuz this is where we started this conversation.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings We’re still learning about this area. What comes next? What are scientists hoping to discover, uh, that we haven’t found yet in this?

Jimmy Thompson Yeah, so the, the frenzy of activity that’s been happening out there since the marine protected area started to be designated is about to kick off even further. They’re, they’re, they’re going back out there, um, on the John p Tulley, a Coast Guard vessel. They’re going out this summer. I’m hoping to hitch a ride. We’ll see. And they will be revisiting several of the, the, the sea mounts and, and, and hydrothermal vents, maybe, I dunno, who knows? Maybe discovering more sea mounts while they’re at it. But they’ll also be looking for, Methane seeps. They suspect there is evidence, apparently very strong evidence. I am not the judge of what is strong and not strong evidence of methane seeps, but apparently very strong evidence that there is a very large methane seep out there. Uh, methane seeps are kind of what they sound like. It’s where methane is seeping out of the bottom. And that sounds kind of boring. It’s not. Methane seeps create habitat rocks form at methane seeps. As I said earlier, rocks. Incredibly valuable habitat, um, on the bottom of the ocean. When you think of this abyssal plane, this sort of muddy bottom, if you got a rock suddenly you can have some, uh, ces or urchins or crinoids. You can have little things sticking to it. Uh, it can form, it can, it can be a place for fish to hide so they form habitats bigger and bigger habitats around these methane seeps. That’s really, really cool and very valuable and also, They have special species that, that are adapted to live only at methane seeps. So just like the hydrothermal vent species, they’re, they’re converting the gases into. Energy for themselves. So methane seeps are a very exciting possible inclusion in the park. Not the main reason it’s being protected, but they would be a, a really nice addition. Jimmy, thank you so much for this. It’s so nice to, uh, tell a wonderful positive science story that doesn’t involve much exploitation for minerals. I first wrote about this. Six years ago and, and it’s finally really, really happening. So it’s, uh, very nice to to see it.

Jordan Heath-Rawlings Jimmy Thompson writing in the Narwhal, and that was the big story. It’s really nice to not have to deliver bad news when talking about the environment for once, so I hope you enjoyed it as well. You can find all the other bad environmental news by heading to the big story podcast.ca if you have other. Environmental stories that we should cover when we’re feeling down. You can send them to hello at the big story podcast.ca, or you can call us and leave us a voicemail, 4 1 6 9 3 5 5 9 3 5. And if you aren’t yet, you can follow us on Twitter at the big story fpn. You’ll find this podcast wherever you like to listen to them. You’ll find it on your smart speaker simply by asking it to play the Big Story podcast. Thanks for listening. Have a lovely holiday weekend. Stay safe and we’ll talk on Monday.