Implementing the MaPP North Vancouver Island Marine Plan

The North Vancouver Island Marine Plan implementation strategy is increasingly influencing ocean management. The First Nation and provincial government Plan partners use annual work plans and budgets to implement priority... [ view full abstract ]

The North Vancouver Island Marine Plan implementation strategy is increasingly influencing ocean management. The First Nation and provincial government Plan partners use annual work plans and budgets to implement priority strategies. An “incremental approach” promotes refinement of our efforts in successive implementation years. Two priority topics are improved cultural resource inventory  and improved opportunities for sustainable aquaculture. For cultural resources, an initial desktop exercise to document to predict First Nations archaeological sites was followed by a field investigation that confirmed the model’s accuracy and documented many new sites. In Year 3 we expanded  field surveys to other areas to document more sites.  Year 4 saw an assessment of cultural site vulnerability and sensitivity, First Nation guardian training on inventory and documentation, identification of several hundred new sites, and a pilot project proposal for collaborative management of sites.

For shellfish aquaculture, initial 1 efforts were to complete a biophysical capability assessment of the entire sub-region.  This led to a pilot grow-out and monitoring study for selected shellfish species.  Positive grow-out results at pilot locations led to a Year 3 marketing study for any product coming from the area. Year 4 effort has been a business feasibility assessment, which could lead to a specific business plan and a new shellfish industry.