Can you tell the difference between trawling and trolling? Do you know that a longline isn’t just an inconvenience at the check-out counter? The type of gear that is used can have an enormous impact on the sustainability of any fishery. Check out this short video about the different types of fishing gears commonly used in Canada, and their impacts on the marine environment.

Spring into summer with sustainable seafood! Make ocean-friendly choices on the go with the SeaChoice iPhone app and wallet card. With spring just poking its head out from underneath a long Canadian winter, it’s time for us to venture outdoors for two whole seasons of camping, picnics and barbeques. There’s nothing more delicious than fresh seafood cooked up on an outdoor grill. But which species of prawn should you be throwing on the barbeque and what kind of tuna should fill your salad sandwich? The choices that you make about the seafood you buy can have a dramatic effect on the health of our oceans. This spring, make a positive difference for yourself, your family and the ocean by joining the sustainable seafood movement. Then take the pledge to make ocean-friendly choices when you shop for seafood.

In 2010 there were two major spills from double-hulled tankers: the Eagle Otome, with a coast pilot onboard, near Beaumont, Texas and the Bunga Kelana 3 in the Strait of Singapore. Combined, the two tankers spilled 4.6 million litres of oil.

The supertankers proposed by Enbridge can carry two million barrels of crude. When loaded they can take three kilometres and 15 minutes to come to a complete stop.

Enbridge is spending a lot of time and money trying to reassure Canadians that 220 crude oil tankers per year can safely sail our coast to service its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project. Item one of Enbridge’s marine plan calls for double-hulled tankers, although that’s hardly an Enbridge innovation. As of 2010, all crude oil tankers worldwide were required to be double hulled.

Double-hull tankers have two layers of steel separating their cargo from the ocean. Both layers must be punctured in order for a spill to occur. Although double hulls may reduce oil spill volume from minor groundings and low energy collisions, they may actually increase the risk of oil spills in the first place. Double hulls are susceptible to a range of issues that make them more prone to leaks and failures including accelerated corrosion in their cargo tanks and high metal stress levels. Most importantly, double-hull tanker designs do not address human error, which is responsible for up to 80 percent of total oil spills worldwide.

The Northern Gateway marine plan also fails to mention that tankers will not be accompanied by escort tugs or BC Coast Pilots in the open waters of the North Coast where wind speeds can reach 200 km/hr and waves 25 meters and higher are not uncommon. There will be no rescue tug on standby in Hecate Strait or Queen Charlotte Sound if a tanker loses power or has a steering failure. Instead, tugs will be sent from Kitimat with an estimated response time of 10-18 hours during which time a disabled tanker may drift ashore and break open, spilling its cargo of oil.

Living Oceans Society is working to convince all parties vying to form the next Canadian government to enact a permanent tanker ban on B.C.’s North Coast. Double-hulled or not, accidents happen. They are an inevitable part of shipping.

Download the report Tanker Technology. Limitations of Double Hulls to read more about this misleading safeguard.

On May 2, Canadians will vote for a new government. We don’t expect our politicians to walk on water, but we would like to see oceans issues better represented in Ottawa. Before you vote, find out which candidates are willing to work for healthy oceans and healthy communities. Start by asking the following questions. If elected: Would your government enact a transition to closed-containment salmon farming within the next five years and invest significant funds to develop closed containment technology? Would your government impose a permanent oil tanker ban on Canada’s Pacific North Coast? Would your government implement seafood labelling so products can be traced to their source? Will your government immediately provide funding for the PNCIMA planning and implementation process? Will your government adopt an ecosystem-based management policy for Canada's oceans? CLICK HERE to find out who your candidates are.

Six word story contest winner So many seashells. Such little pockets. By Heather Jones

Heather's prize is an eco-friendly bamboo/cotton Sea Hugger T-shirt like this one modelled by Yvonne, our Donor Relations Coordinator. AND a Fish For Thought sustainable seafood cookbook. PLUS other goodies.

New North Pacific fisheries convention protects corals, sponges and fish stocks

A new international convention will provide corals and other fragile deep-sea habitat with improved protection from destructive fishing practices across a vast section of the North Pacific Ocean. This is a major step forward in securing a more hopeful future for crucial coral ecosystems as it also halts the destructive practice of fishing for specific corals for the jewelry trade. Canadian fishermen will benefit as well, thanks to improved management of ‘straddling stocks’ to control fishing outside our waters.

The North Pacific Fisheries Commission Convention area. CLICK to open larger map.

In March, Living Oceans Society’s John Driscoll attended a conference in Vancouver, B.C.  where international delegations met to finalize the North Pacific Fisheries Commission Convention. The delegates – who hailed from Russia, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, the U.S. and Canada – also determined a set of interim measures, which include provisions to protect corals and other sensitive habitat in the international waters of the North Pacific. The convention and interim protection measures will apply to all North Pacific high seas fisheries that are not already covered by existing measures.

“While the measures aren’t perfect, there’s a lot to like, particularly the protection for corals,“ said Driscoll. “Corals are very important for ocean health because they form habitat for fish and other living things, yet they are easily disturbed or destroyed by some kinds of fishing.”

The interim measures also specifically forbid fishing for several kinds of coral – an important addition, because the North Pacific is home to corals that are prized in the lucrative coral jewelry trade.

The agreements will also improve fisheries management of ‘straddling stocks’, the commercial fish stocks that occur both inside and outside of a country’s domestic waters.

“Until now, it was possible for foreign fishing vessels  to come right up to the boundaries of Canada’s Pacific waters to fish certain species without management oversight,” said Driscoll. “That loophole is now closed.”

The docks in Port McNeill team with boaters set to explore the magnificent Broughton Archipelago, or preparing for the next leg of their journey up the Central Coast. A large steel seiner stops to take on fuel and supplies before heading out for another set of salmon. A water taxi, back from dropping off kayakers at their camp, passes a whale-watching boat that’s headed out to look for a pod of Northern Resident killer whales. It seems like just another typical summer day in Port McNeill, but it’s really a microcosm of a marine economy that relies on the vibrant ocean environment around northern Vancouver Island.

Many business owners in the North Island have recognized new markets and capitalized on existing ones over the past decade. This is particularly true in marine businesses, which despite the decline in fish stocks provide almost 30 percent of private sector employment in the region, according to a recently released joint study by Living Oceans Society and the Regional District of Mount Waddington.

The study, which looked at the diverse marine economy of communities in the Regional District, shows a number of links between the livelihoods of people business in these communities and the ocean riches they rely on. The majority of marine businesses in the region rely not only on the fish and whales which the ocean supports, but on its natural beauty as well.

This is one of the reasons why Living Oceans Society has been working to keep our ocean healthy. The work we are doing with Marine Harvest Canada to develop closed containment systems for salmon aquaculture, which could pave the way to moving the salmon farms out of the water, contributes towards a healthier ocean for all and the protection of jobs in aquaculture and other marine businesses.