Canada has been “dragging its heels” on commitments to create marine protected areas and ranks last on the list of countries with the longest coastlines in terms of the amount of ocean where human activity has been restricted to preserve biodiversity.
That is the finding of a report to be released June 2nd by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society which points out that Canada has protected just 1.3 per cent of its “ocean estate” – the internal waters and the sea stretching from the coasts to the outer edge of the 200-mile exclusive economic zone.