Ecologically Significant Areas (ESAs): A new freshwater and nearshore conservation tool

This bilingual national webinar with simultaneous translation was hosted by Our Living Waters on April 8 2025 and offered a look at a new aquatic conservation tool, featuring experts from Northern Confluence Initiative, Oceans North, St. Mary’s River Association and the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq.

Background:

The federal Fisheries Act (Section 34) enables the establishment of Ecologically Significant Areas (ESAs) – a regulatory tool intended to provide long-term protection of fish and fish habitat that is sensitive, highly productive, rare or unique. 

Areas are protected by:

  • setting conservation and protection objectives and associated legal prohibitions for certain activities (other than fishing), works and undertakings (such as preventing gravel removal); 
  • setting habitat goals (such as retaining all eelgrass or maintaining fish passage) in a specified area like an estuary or part or all of a river or lake; and
  • establishing the ESA in federal regulation.

While ESAs have been in the Fisheries Act since 2012, further details were added in 2019 (Section 35.2) and a framework was developed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 2023. ESAs have yet to be used but they have the potential to protect critical fish habitat and fill an important gap in protecting aquatic ecosystems.

Webinar participants learned about this conservation tool and heard about potential opportunities to receive support for protecting nearshore or freshwater systems.

Presenters included: 

Northern Confluence Initiative logo | Logo de la Northern Confluence Initiative
Oceans North logo | logo d'Oceans North
Logo of St. Mary's River Association | Logo de l'Association de la rivière St. Mary's
Logo with three stylized figures in yellow, green, and blue forming a circular shape on the left. The text Our Living Waters is written in blue on the right. Ajouter une traduction en français canadien : Le logo comprend trois figures stylisées en jaune, vert et bleu formant une forme circulaire à gauche. Le texte Nos Eaux Vivantes est écrit en bleu à droite.
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Our Living Waters horizontal logo in full colour

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