logo

 

 

 

Email This PagePrint This Page

Healthy Oceans

Canada’s Ocean Heritage

If you are one of the seven million Canadians who live along Canada’s coastline you already know the majesty of our great oceans. Or perhaps you are from another part of Canada and have visited our coasts and experienced the wonder of their spectacular marine life first-hand. And spectacular it is! Canada is home to the world’s longest coastline: three oceans and a sea of arctic ice supporting the largest web of marine life on earth.

Given that 40 per cent of Canada’s jurisdictional area is ocean and that ocean-related activity accounts for more than $23 billion annually, the oceans deserve our attention.

Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world. In combination, the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Ocean environments within Canada’s exclusive economic zone support some of the most abundant and diverse webs of marine life on earth.

But all is not well in Canada’s oceans. From sea to sea to sea, the effects of industrial fishing, pollution, and climate change combine into a suite of industrial impacts that pose constant and increasing threats to coastal and marine environments and wildlife.

Changes in the environment under the surface of the deep blue sea are not easy to see, but they are taking place, and the quality of our coastal and marine environments is eroding. We can continue to let it happen or we can take action now.

Canada's oceans are at a tipping point. We have already lost many fish stocks, marine mammals and other marine wildlife. We still have time to reverse the damage, but we must make changes now to how we use our oceans.

Follow the links below to learn more about what you can do to take action today and become an advocate for our coastal and marine environments.

 

David Suzuki

Quicklinks

Join us on...