{"id":660442,"date":"2026-05-23T12:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/660442\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T12:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:46:17","slug":"b-c-first-nations-ottawa-sign-agreement-to-create-realm-of-the-salmon-coastal-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/660442\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C., First Nations, Ottawa sign agreement to create \u2018Realm of the Salmon\u2019 coastal reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A sub-adult grizzly bear chases down a salmon near Klemtu, B.C., in a 2015 file photo.John Lehmann\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

On the central coast of British Columbia, six First Nations and federal and provincial governments signed a historic agreement Friday in Klemtu to protect one of the richest coastal waters on Earth \u2013 a region where Pacific salmon are a cornerstone species for coastal First Nations and commercial fisheries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe establishment of Mia-yaltwa Ha\u2019lidzogm hoon reflects decades of Indigenous leadership, collaboration, and persistence to protect the marine ecosystems that sustain our cultures, communities, and economies,\u201d said K\u0313\u00e1w\u00e1zi\u026b Marilyn Slett, Chief Councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, one of the First Nations signatories alongside the Wuikinuxv, Nuxalk, Kitasoo Xai\u2019xais, Gitxaa\u0142a and Gitga\u2019at Nations, in a statement. <\/p>\n

The reserve\u2019s name, which means \u201cRealm of the Salmon, Home of the Salmon,\u201d blends syllables from the Nations\u2019 languages \u2013 a linguistic act of unity for peoples who have stewarded these waters for millennia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our responsibility to care for this land, as it cares for us, and to support it in a way that enables it to flourish and thrive,\u201d said Chief Marlou Shaw of Wuikinuxv Nation in a statement.<\/p>\n

Ottawa announces $3.8-billion nature strategy<\/a><\/p>\n

The marine reserve is the first of up to 10 committed to under Canada\u2019s $3.8-billion nature strategy, announced this spring \u2013 and a centrepiece of the Great Bear Sea Marine Protected Area Network<\/a>, the world\u2019s largest Indigenous-led, collaboratively governed network of its kind.<\/p>\n

The reserve spans a rugged stretch of islands, rocky headlands and steep fjords along B.C.\u2019s central coast within the Northern Shelf Bioregion. Nestled between the Great Bear Rainforest and the open Pacific, it is larger than the size of Prince Edward Island, though final boundaries are still to be confirmed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Spirit Bear, the rare, white-coated Kermode bear, feeds on the salmon that run through these waters. Kelp forests and eelgrass meadows shelter herring, salmon, halibut and Dungeness crab. Sea otters hunt in the shallows. Humpback whales feed on the herring that pulse through these waters. Offshore, coral and sponge reefs rise from the sea floor.<\/p>\n

The designation, among the first in Canada, pairs a national marine conservation area and an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area \u2013 that recognizes the Nations\u2019 inherent rights and responsibilities to govern and steward their territory \u2013 with the same name and footprint. \u201cI think this will be one of the strongest marine protected areas on the planet,\u201d said Chief Chris McKnight of Kitasoo Xai\u2019xais Nation in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we strengthen and support the ecosystems, they in turn strengthen and sustain us,\u201d said Danielle Shaw, president of the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance, in a statement.<\/p>\n

Built on a model that sees environment and economy thrive together, Julie Dabrusin, Canada\u2019s Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Nature, told The Globe and Mail that fishing and ecotourism will continue. \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about a no-go zone \u2013 commercial fishing and recreational fishing remain in that area,\u201d said Ms. Dabrusin.<\/p>\n

In depth: The perilous waters of Hecate Strait<\/a><\/p>\n

Commercial fishing in the Great Bear Sea is worth half a billion dollars annually. Bottom trawling will be banned \u2013 \u201cthere was very little\u201d groundfish and shrimp trawling in the area to begin with, said B.C. Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Randene Neill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can conserve areas that are special, we can build our economy in a really good, sustainable way and we can do it through the lens of reconciliation. It\u2019s kind of like a triple-word score: Everybody wins,\u201d said Ms. Neill, adding that a co-management board and advisory committee will govern the reserve, with a zoning plan still to be developed through consultation.<\/p>\n

Full legislative designation under the Canada National Marine Conservation Areas Act \u2013 which would make the fishing protections, including the bottom trawling ban, legally enforceable \u2013 is anticipated to take a number of years.<\/p>\n

Michael Bissonnette, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, said the approach marks a meaningful departure from conservation\u2019s colonial history, in which protected areas have often meant the displacement of Indigenous peoples from their own territories. \u201cThese examples where conservation is led by Indigenous peoples are so much better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The designation comes as Ottawa and Alberta negotiate a new oil pipeline to the B.C. coast. Several of Friday\u2019s signatories \u2013 Kitasoo Xai\u2019xais, Gitga\u2019at and Heiltsuk \u2013 are among the coastal First Nations who travelled to Calgary last month to warn pipeline investors of their opposition to a crude export terminal in the region and any lifting of the federal tanker ban on B.C.\u2019s north coast.<\/p>\n

B.C. First Nations warn executives of legal, financial risks associated with proposed pipeline<\/a><\/p>\n

The pace of progress toward Canada\u2019s goal of protecting 30 per cent of its marine areas by 2030 also remains a concern. Marine protection sits at 15.5 per cent, short of an interim 25 per cent target that passed last year. Habitat alteration, resource pressures and a warming ocean are among the mounting threats. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing drastic declines in biodiversity and climate change is going to just increase those declines and we need to act,\u201d said Mr. Bissonnette.<\/p>\n

Other marine reserves have faced stopgaps. The South Coast Fjords in Newfoundland and Labrador was scrapped<\/a> by the province this spring. B.C.\u2019s Southern Strait of Georgia is \u201cdecades away,\u201d said Ms. Neill. Several other candidate sites<\/a> \u2013 in Hudson Bay, Labrador and Eastern James Bay \u2013 still need to advance to reach the federal government\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work on this has been going for years, and so we\u2019ve managed to conclude this one,\u201d said Ms. Dabrusin. \u201cI think it\u2019s really quite reasonable when we show the success of one, we keep moving towards more in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Klemtu on Friday, the moment belonged to the Nations whose elders first mapped these waters for protection a generation ago. \u201cIn the 1990s, Wuikinuxv elders and knowledge holders identified these areas as essential to the Wuikinuxv way of life,\u201d said Andra Forney, Stewardship Director for Wuikinuxv Nation, in a statement. \u201cAfter decades of dedication and hard work, we are honoured to finally begin realizing the vision and dreams they set in motion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A sub-adult grizzly bear chases down a salmon near Klemtu, B.C., in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,13849,79],"class_list":["post-660442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-pleasemod","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}