Gateway to Northwest Passage to Become Marine Conservation Area
15.10.2009 - Water & Oceans, Ice & Snow, Flora & Fauna, Human Dimension, Other, Arctic
Lancaster Sound, located off the northern tip of Baffin Island in Canada’s Nunavut Territory, is the eastern gateway to the Northwest Passage. The Government of Canada, the Government of Nunavut, and the regional land claim organization are talking about signing a memorandum of understanding making Lancaster Sound a Marine Conservation Area.
Lancaster Sound, and area that Parks Canada has wanted to be protected since 1987, is an area of rich ecological diversity and home to most of the world’s narwhals, large numbers of belugas and bowhead whales. Sections of year-long polyanas (areas of open water in the sea ice) attract seals and walrus, as well as polar bears and hundreds of thousands of birds seeking to nest in the area.
While making Lancaster Sound a national marine conservation area would ban ocean dumping, undersea mining, and energy exploration, future regulations may nonetheless include a loophole for international shipping. The area is seeing an increase in commercial shipping and private voyaging increasing and pressure is mounting to exploit its natural resources.
Declaring Lancaster Sound a Marine Conservation Area is also a way for Canada to assert its sovereignty over the Northwest Passage. The area has been on UNESCO‘s potential list of World Heritage Sites for 25 years, and getting on the list would bring international acknowledgment of Canada’s responsibility and right to look after the region. However Canadian Governments have refrained from the UNESCO designation for fear of a challenge from the US.
Depending largely on the ongoing negotiations around benefits and co-management with local Inuit communities, reaching a final agreement seems to be still some two to three years away. However the international understanding of the fact that there are some people living and hunting in the area might consolidate Canada’s position in the Lancaster Sound debate.
