Like every other news outlet in the province, CBC is reporting that federal fish minister Loyola Hearn released management plans for two marine protected areas in Newfoundland and Labrador.Okay.
The official fisheries and oceans news release includes this odd comment:
"As we move closer to these two new Marine Protected Areas, it shows what can be done for the environment when everyone works together," says Minister Hearn. "This is another example of how Canada’s New Government is taking real action to protect our precious marine environment."It's odd because there's no way of knowing what Hearn means by "move closer to these two new Marine Protected Areas."
These MPAs aren't new. They received official MPA designation in 2005, but the actual work at Eastport, for example, began in 1997 with the establishment of a joint management project involving a local fishermen's committee and the fisheries department. Eastport remains a model for co-operative management of fisheries resources. Ditto Gilbert Bay where that MPA is protecting a subspecies of North Atlantic cod. Another project at Leading Tickles is struggling along but it hasn't achieved the same success as the other two.
Hearn might mean "moving closer" in the sense that he went to Eastport to make the announcement but other than that the phrase is a head scratcher. The management plan is good news but the MPAs have worked with some sort of management plan from the outset.
In the Summer of Love, there is obviously no reason not to announce an announcement of a previously announced announcement.
-srbp-