Canada Creates Banc-des-Américains Marine Protected Area - Oceana

Victory | March 1, 2019

Canada Creates Banc-des-Américains Marine Protected Area

The Government of Canada established a 1,000 square kilometer marine protected area (MPA) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence called the Banc-des-Américains. This new MPA protects one of Canada’s most diverse and productive marine areas. In 2017, Oceana Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada partnered to conduct an expedition in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, including the Banc-des-Américains. The government used data from the expedition to support protection and management of important habitat, including habitat-forming corals and sponges, forage fishes like capelin and herring, commercially important species like crab and shrimp, and the iconic and highly endangered North Atlantic right whale.