Great Bear Sea waters move closer to federal protection

By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer A stretch of ocean off BC’s central coast, where salmon, herring, whales, sea otters and some of the province’s largest kelp beds share waters with fishing boats and coastal communities, is moving toward federal protection. Six First Nations, Ottawa and the province signed an agreement Friday to establish a new National Marine Conservation Area Reserve in the Great Bear Sea, beside the globally known Great Bear Rainforest. “This is kind of the water offshoot of part of that,” BC Water, Land and Resource Stewardshi…