Research Brief
Failure to Properly Administer the Oceans Act, 1996 and the Fisheries
Act, 1985 Has Created A Negative Impact on Marine Life in British
Columbia.

Principal
Researcher(s) &
Affiliation(s)

April 30 2019

Elena Khan

Introduction

Advisor: Claire
Yeung

The Oceans Act, 1996 and the Fisheries Act, 1985 provide policies and
regulations to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all marine mammals. British
Columbia has an internationally important role in conservation, because many
of the species and ecosystems are found nowhere else in Canada or in the
world (Fisheries & Oceans, 2017). An expert panel investigating the state of
Canadian marine biodiversity has stated, that the government is failing to
protect the country’s oceans, leaving marine life threatened, and the nation’s
ocean species at risk (Bangs, 2012). The aim of this research is to address how
the government applies the legislation when it comes to protecting marine life
and what are the impacts as a result of it.

Research Field:
Legislation and the
impact on marine life
Student Involvement
N/A
Partners &
Collaboration
N/A

Methods

Funding Sources
N/A: Course-based
Project.
Project Period
From: January 2019
To: April 2019

The study looked into the secondary sources available on the JIBC EBSCO
using the following keywords: marine, mammal and legislation. Using these
keywords produced 4,218 hits, the search was then refined to show only peerreviewed articles and journals with a publication date set from 2010- 2019,
which resulted in 1,304 hits. The rationale was based on the credibility of
authors, relevance to themes, currency and issues addressed. The compiled
information was then analyzed using the grounded theory and a qualitative
research method.
Results
After reviewing the literature, the following themes became apparent:
Implementation of marine protected areas;
Contaminants and noise disturbance;
Lack of recovery strategies and action plans;
Lack of ocean science.

- Funded
- In Kind
-Total

$0.00
$0.00
$0.00

Within the outlined themes above, the following issues were identified:
-Currently, there is not enough data that would prove that marine protected
areas are beneficial to marine life, and the ones that have been established so
far are in the wrong areas and have little positive impact.
-The difficulty balancing a healthy environment and preventing damage caused
by the oil industry and Canada’s economy, which depends on the oil industry
(Lake, 2018).
-Slow progress of creating recovery strategies and action plans, either to
respond to present toxic spills or the potential future environmental incidents.

Research Brief
-Currently, due to insufficient funds and lack of science libraries, marine scientists are limited in their abilities to
do research, advise and help create programs that help reduce the negative impacts on marine life.
Discussion
The literature presented evidence addressed by the different researchers related to the government and their
administration of the Oceans Act and the Fisheries Act. Some researchers argued that implementing marine
protected areas should be the number one priority to address the fragile state of BC marine life, specifically marine
mammals. However, others implicated those marine protected areas to be contradictory, claiming there is no proof
they are beneficial. Fisheries and Oceans Canada is responsible for preparing recovery strategy plans for marine
mammals, but they can only do so much with the funds available, and ultimately it is the government responsibility
to ensure the responsible agencies have sufficient budget to develop those recovery action plans.
Limitations
Due to the subject matter of the research topic and the importance of utilizing the most current data available, this
research was limited to only few academic studies that have been conducted in recent years. This research also
utilized various newspaper articles to support the academics, although they tend to be biased in their reporting as
some of them were written or consulted by different environmental groups.
Conclusion and recommendations
The findings of the research indicate that Canada has an elaborate legislation in place to protect its oceans and
marine life they support. However, the issues arise when it comes to balancing between the needs of humans,
restrictions on various human activities, designating proper budgets to responsible agencies and providing the
necessary tools to manage the protection of marine life. Based on the research done the following
recommendations may improve the current state of BC marine life: collaboration with the First Nations and other
international organizations to implement marine protected areas; all responsible agencies should report its
achievements and contribution toward meeting the global commitment of protecting marine life; Fisheries and
Oceans Canada, including the Canadian Coast Guard should work together and implement measures to decrease
threats to marine life from commercial vessels.
Key References
Fisheries and Oceans Canada. (2017). Canada’s oceans strategy. Retrieved from http://www.dfo- mpo.gc.ca/oceans/
publications/cos-soc/page4-eng.html
Lake, H. (2018). Is oil sinking efforts to protect marine areas? Retrieved from https://ipolitics.ca/article/doingmore-for-canadas-marine-protected-areas/