Like national parks on land, Canada's marine protected areas (MPAs) should be places where wildlife can take refuge and recover from the consequences of human activities. Yet belugas, leatherback turtles, fish, seabirds, and other at-risk species in our protected ocean waters are still being threatened by harmful waste and toxic washwater from cruise ships and commercial vessels.
What's more, heavy metals, microplastics and harmful viruses and bacteria from contaminated wastewater can make their way through the marine food web and into what we eat.
While the federal government has declared new minimum standards that prohibit dumping in Canada's marine protected areas, it has yet to define what counts as dumping or how these standards will be implemented and enforced. Without a comprehensive definition, we risk protections that are too weak to protect wildlife. To put it simply, "no dumping" needs to mean something.
Call on the federal government to ensure our MPAs are protected from dumping in more than name only by developing a comprehensive definition of "dumping" that prohibits ALL harmful discharges and waste from ships in MPAs, including:
• Sewage (treated and untreated)
• Grey water (treated and untreated)
• Solid waste (including plastics)
• Scrubber effluent (from exhaust gas cleaning systems)
• Ballast water
• Oily mixtures
As the federal government works towards its commitment to protect 25 per cent of our oceans by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030, it's more important than ever that the standards we create are strong enough to help struggling wildlife and ecosystems. Otherwise, new and existing MPAs amount to just lines on a map.
We shouldn't call an area protected if the dumping of such pollutants, in any quantity, is allowed. Dumping in a marine protected area stands in direct conflict with achieving Canada's long-term conservation goals for healthy ocean ecosystems.
Will you tell the Canadian government to keep its promise and ensure "no dumping" in marine protected areas means NO to ALL dumping?
