Question Period Note: Netflix ‘Seaspiracy’ Documentary

• Our government recognizes the global challenge of illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing; it is devastating to ecosystems and economies around the world.
• Canada ratified the Port State Measures Agreement, which closed our ports and markets to illicit products, and provided us with additional enforcement authorities.
• Canada is seeking an ambitious outcome at the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies negotiations to address harmful subsidies that contribute to illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, overfishing and overcapacity, and through the G7 Charlevoix Blueprint for Healthy Oceans, Canada has committed nearly $12 million to build capacity worldwide to combat illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing.
• Canada has also banned shark finning, including the import and export of shark fins that are not attached to a shark carcass.
• Our government will continue to work with partners in the provinces and territories, Indigenous communities, and Canadians from coast to coast to coast to create a plan to increase marine conservation.

If pressed:
• Canada is known for our world-class fish and seafood products, which are harvested under sustainable management practices. The benefits of this quality and sustainability are valued by our informed consumers, and our hard-working Canadian fish harvesters, processors and coastal communities.

• On March 24, 2021, Netflix released the “Seaspiracy” documentary, in which “a filmmaker sets out to document the harm that humans do to marine species – and uncovers alarming global corruption.”

IUU fishing
• IUU fishing is estimated to account for up to 30 per cent of fish landings worldwide and remove as much as $30 B from the world’s economy annually. It is increasingly linked to crimes of convergence such as drug trafficking and human slavery.
• Canada’s economy (75,000 jobs in the primary fishing and aquaculture sector) and natural resources (especially straddling and highly migratory fish stocks) are put at serious risk by IUU fishing.
• Canada is actively involved in ongoing negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.6) – i.e., by 2020, eliminate subsidies that contribute to IUU fishing and prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, while recognizing the need for appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries. Although the 2020 deadline under SDG 14.6 was not met, negotiations among the 164 members of the WTO continue to intensify with a view to concluding as soon as possible.
• Fisheries and Oceans is implementing the G7 Charlevoix Blueprint for Health Oceans, which included $11.6M in funding for developing new satellite based technologies to track illegal fishing, funding to develop an intelligence sharing network, and work with non-governmental organizations to combat IUU fishing.
• Canada ratified the Port State Measures Agreement in 2019, which has as its objective, preventing IUU fishing vessels from landing their catches in the ports of member states.
• Also in 2019, Canada prohibited shark finning and banned the import and export of fins that are not naturally attached to the shark.

Marine Conservation Targets
• In 2010, Canada agreed to marine conservation targets established under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to conserve 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas through effectively managed networks of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures by 2020. This is commonly referred to as Aichi Target 11. This commitment was reconfirmed in 2015 (United Nations General Assembly’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development under Goal 14).
• Canada currently conserves 13.81 per cent of marine and coastal areas, including 14 marine protected areas (MPAs) established by Fisheries and Oceans Canada under the Oceans Act. Additional Areas of Interest have been announced as being pursued for Oceans Act MPA designation (e.g., Offshore Pacific, Eastern Shore Islands, Southampton Island). Meeting the new marine conservation targets will require advancing work on marine spatial planning, including development of bioregional conservation network designs that will identify new sites for conservation.
• In response to mandate commitments, the Department is engaging other departments to begin to develop an ambitious plan to conserve 25 per cent of Canada’s oceans by 2025, working toward 30 per cent by 2030, and has begun working with other like-minded countries around the world to advocate for 30 per cent marine and terrestrial conservation by 2030.
• These new domestic targets for marine conservation are aligned with new global marine conservation targets that are an expected outcome of post-2020 target negotiations at the CBD in the coming months.
• Since 1992, the CBD has provided Canada with a framework to protect its own biodiversity, supporting Canadian livelihoods and wellbeing, as well as the opportunity to influence global biodiversity policy.
• With 196 States Parties, the CBD is one of the most influential international mechanisms to address biodiversity loss, including marine and coastal biodiversity, through global policy change and action.
• At the upcoming 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the CBD, date TBD, States Parties will adopt a new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, including new biodiversity targets to replace the current 20 Aichi targets (2011-20) that will guide global biodiversity conservation and sustainable use efforts towards 2030 and beyond to 2050.
• COP15 will provide Canada with the opportunity to influence new international policy on the sustainable use and harvest of marine resources and new ambitious targets for marine conservation.

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