Marine protected areas in Canada — implications for both conservation and fisheries management

Legislated marine "protected" areas are now widely distributed throughout tropical and temperate waters, but the nature of human activities actually restricted in any area varies. This ambiguity about what "protected" means has resulted in contradictory claims as to both the benefits and costs of marine protected areas. Here, we give our perspective on the current status of marine resource protection in Canada in general and British Columbia in particular. We first describe and discuss the history of Canadian marine protected areas established to date. Many areas are claimed to be protected, with little understanding by either the general public or even most marine resource experts as to what human activities are actually regulated by legislative designations. Second, we present an overview of biological reasons and objectives for marine protected areas, followed by a review of both the conservation and fisheries management effects and implications resulting from effective renewable resource protection. Finally, we propose a unique qualitative scheme for classifying and describing marine protected areas of different types to determine relative measures of protection.