As climate change, resource overexploitation, and pollution leave ever more visible marks, ocean ecosystems, economies, and people are all affected. With coasts on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic, Canada faces a formidable challenge in building resilient, sustainable oceans and supporting the communities that rely on them.
Sea Change reports on the OceanCanada Partnership, a multidisciplinary project to take stock of what we know about Canada’s oceans, construct possible scenarios for coastal regions, and create a national dialogue and vision. Three themes emerge from this impressive synthesis of social, cultural, economic, and environmental research: ocean change, access to ocean resources, and ocean governance.
Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and practitioners focus on finding solutions to rapid environmental and social transformation, outlining the implications for legislation and offering policy recommendations. Increasingly, civil society will have to advocate for oceans, and Sea Change will empower the voices of those who take up that task.
SEA CHANGE: Charting a Sustainable Future for Oceans in Canada is now available to buy.
The journey to the publication of this book started back in 2013, right after OceanCanada Director Dr Rashid Sumaila finished his term as director of the then Fisheries Centre (now Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries) at the University of British Columbia, when he initiated a conversation with members of his lab (the Fisheries Economics Research Unit) on how to develop a winning project proposal to address a significant challenge. This conversation was later expanded to leaders in the field of interdisciplinary social and natural sciences pertaining to oceans and fisheries. These conversations culminated in the formation of the OceanCanada Partnership (OCP), which went on to successfully win one of the coveted Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grants.
The OceanCanada Partnership ran from 2014 until 2022, and provided us the platform to develop the ideas, concepts, insights and policy recommendations reported in this book. It also afforded us the opportunity to publish several contributions while training a sizable number of students and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to create their own research programmes or join government, Non Governmental Organisations, and the private sector – contributing to sustaining fish and fisheries throughout Canada’s three coasts and beyond.