SG̲áan K̲ínghlas-Bowie Seamount Gin siigee tl’a damaan kinggangs gin k’aalaagangs Marine Protected Area Management Plan 2019

Table of Contents

• Complete Text
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Disclaimer
• About the SK̲-B Logo
• Haida Language
• Executive Summary
• 1 Introduction
  • 1.1 Location
  • 1.2 Prohibited Activities and Exceptions
• 2 Cooperative Governance
• 3 SK̲-B Guiding Principles
• 4 Conservation Significance and Human Use
  • 4.1 Geological, Oceanographic and Ecological Characteristics
  • 4.2 Cultural Characteristics and Values
  • 4.3 Socio-Economic Use
    • 4.3.1 Fishing Activities
    • 4.3.2 Scientific Research and Monitoring
    • 4.3.3 Vessel Traffic
    • 4.3.4 Other Activities
• 5 Management Framework
  • 5.1 Goals and Objectives
    • Goal 1. Protect and Conserve SK̲-B MPA
    • Goal 2. Manage Human Activities
    • Goal 3. Best Available Information and Effective Monitoring
    • Goal 4. Cooperative Management
    • Goal 5. Public Awareness
• 6 Surveillance, Enforcement and Compliance
  • 6.1 Reporting Accidents and Violations
• 7 Education and Outreach
• 8 Implementation
  • 8.1 Management Priorities
  • 8.2 Reporting and Plan Evaluation
• Glossary
• References
• Acronyms for Frequently Used Terms
• Appendix 1: Bowie Seamount MPA Regulations
• Contact information

List of Boxes

• Box 1. SK̲-B MPA History Highlights
• Box 2. Other Cooperative Processes
• Box 3. A Recent History of Socio-Economic Activities in the SK̲-B MPA
• Box 4. Regional Vessel Traffic Context
• Box 5. Developing Goals and Objectives
• Box 6. SG̲áan K̲ínghlas aauu tl’a ‘waadluwaan hlGajagang (We all take care of SG̲áan K̲ínghlas)

List of Figures

• Figure 1. SG̲áan K̲ínghlas - Bowie Seamount Marine Protected Area Map
• Figure 2. Haida Eddies in the vicinity of the SK̲-B MPA
• Figure 3. SK̲-B MPA Management Framework

List of Tables

• Table 1. Linkages between SK̲-B MPA guiding principles, Canada’s MPA and oceans strategies and frameworks and EBM principles
• Table 2. SK̲-B MPA Management Priorities and Associated Actions

Glossary

Adaptive management

A monitoring and management approach that assists in decision-making related to science-based processes. It is a prescriptive, formalized, systematic method that enables management to learn from the outcomes of implemented management actions.

Adaptive co-management

An emergent governance approach for complex social-ecological systems that links the learning function of adaptive management and the linking function of co-management.

Baseline information

The reference condition for ecosystem components against which to monitor or assess change.

Biodiversity

The variability among living organism from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.

Bycatch

Retained or non-retained incidental catch of non-target species, including, but not limited to, fish, cold-water corals and sponges, marine plants, and birds.

Conservation

The protection, maintenance and rehabilitation of living marine resources, their habitats and supporting ecosystems.

Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (ERAF)

A systematic, science-based decision-making structure that is intended to help guide transition from high-level aspirational principles and goals to more tangible and specific operational objectives. When an ERAF is applied, it assesses potential individual and cumulative risk to significant ecosystem components from human activities and their associated stressors. The results of this application inform the identification and prioritization of potential indicators.

Ecosystem

A dynamic complex of plant, animal and microorganism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit.

Ecosystem component

A fundamental element of the biological, physical or chemical environment that represents an explicit and tangible (i.e. measurable or observable) species, habitat, function, structure or other attribute.

Ecosystem-based management

An adaptive approach to managing human activities that seeks to ensure the coexistence of healthy, fully functioning ecosystems and human communities. The intent is to maintain those spatial and temporal characteristics of ecosystems such that component species and ecological processes can be sustained, and human well-being can be supported and improved. Application of an EBM approach requires a strong foundation in science, including the incorporation of traditional and local knowledge.

Ecosystem function

The physical, chemical and biological processes or attributes that contribute to the self-maintenance of the ecosystem.

Food web

The transfer of food energy across trophic levels within an ecological community.

Haida Eddies

Large anti-cyclonic vortices (waters spiraling clockwise outward from a warmer, less saline centre) that form off the west coast of Haida Gwaii and transport warmer, nutrient- and plankton-rich coastal water out into the North Pacific Ocean.

Indicator

Quantitative/qualitative statements or measured/observed parameters that can be used to describe existing situations and to measure changes or trends over time.

Integrated Fisheries Management Plan

A plan used by DFO to manage fisheries pursuant to the Fisheries Act, to guide the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources.

Large vessels

A boat, ship or craft above 150 gross tonnage designed, used or capable of being used for navigation in, on, through or immediately above water, regardless of its method or lack of propulsion.

Local knowledge

Current knowledge held by people within a community. It can be gained by any individual who has spent considerable time on the land or water observing nature and natural processes.

Management Strategy Evaluation

A simulation-based approach to assessing the relative performance of candidate management procedures under conditions that mimic plausible, though uncertain, stock and fishery dynamics.

Monitoring

A continuous management activity that uses the systematic collection of data on selected indicators to provide managers and stakeholders with indicators that denote the extent of progress toward the achievement of management goals and objectives.

Northern Shelf Bioregion (NSB)

The NSB encompasses approximately 102,000 km² of marine area, extending from the base of the continental shelf slope in the west to the coastal watershed in the east (adjacent terrestrial watersheds are not included), and from the Canada–U.S. international border of Alaska to Brooks Peninsula on northwest Vancouver Island and to Quadra Island in the south. The NSB is ecologically unique for the diversity of ocean features it contains and the important habitat it provides for many species.

Objectives

Objectives describe a desired future state but are more specific and concrete than goals. They are the means of reaching the goals. They answer the question, “What steps are required to achieve the goal?”

Pelagic conditions

The oceanographic qualities within the pelagic zone (e.g. physical, chemical, and biological characteristics).

Pelagic zone

The section of the water column that extends from the surface of the ocean to directly above the ocean floor. The pelagic zone is comprised of five different layers within the water column: epipelagic (< 200 m), mesopelagic (200–1000 m), bathypelagic (1000–4000 m), abyssopelagic (4000–6000 m), and hadopelagic (> 6000 m).

Protection

Avoiding harm to fish, fish habitat or other natural resources from human activities through surveillance and enforcement, and management measures with the goal of compliance with relevant policies, plans and/or regulations (e.g. protection of species at risk).

Range of the natural state

The natural variation of condition and extent, or range, of an ecosystem component (e.g. a species, ecological process, or environmental quality). In areas where human activity occurs, it implies that no measurable difference exists with or without such activity.

Recovery strategy

A document that outlines the long-term goals and short-term objectives for recovering a species at risk, based on the best available scientific baseline information.

Risk

The uncertainty that surrounds future events and outcomes. It is the expression of the likelihood of an adverse ecological effect occurring as a result of exposure to one or more stressors.

Sensitive benthic habitat

Similar to sensitive benthic areas, sensitive benthic habitats are habitats that are vulnerable to proposed or ongoing human activities. Vulnerability will be determined based on the level of harm that the human activities may have on the benthic habitat by degrading ecosystem functions or impairing productivity. Biogenic habitats, such as those created by cold-water corals and sponges, and complex physical seabed elements are common examples of sensitive benthic habitats.

Stressor

Any physical, chemical or biological entity that can induce an adverse response. Stressors may adversely affect specific natural resources or entire ecosystems, including plants and animals, as well as the environment with which they interact.

Structural habitat

Refers to the presence of abiotic and biotic physical structures in a system to the degree that influences ecological patterns and processes. Structural habitat creates heterogeneity and complexity, providing niches, access to food and other resources, and refuge from predators. As a result, the presence of structural habitat often supports a higher abundance and richness of organisms in the system.

Traditional knowledge

Oral and written cultural, spiritual, social, environmental, ecological and economic information that can be passed from one person to another, from generation to generation. Traditional knowledge is a combination of traditional environmental knowledge; traditional marine, land and resource use; and traditional practices, beliefs and laws. It is a resilient process of information that is transformed and adapted to current knowledge.

Transient population

A population that occurs infrequently in an area over time as a result of dispersal from or between surrounding regions, and that does not maintain viable local populations.

Trophic structure

The feeding relationships in an ecosystem that contribute to the routes of energy flow and the patterns of chemical cycling.