The first public presentation is being held today in St. George. Apparently meetings have been held with target groups, but there has been little public discussion as yet.
The first major effort to protect the area was many years ago when Parks Canada attempted to establish the first Canadian marine park. The effort was abandoned after they encountered stiff local opposition.
While MPAs can be totally different, it will be interesting to see how folks react to this latest effort. After a lifetime fending off the Pittston Refinery at Eastport and spending 2 decade plus fighting LNG developments proposed for the Quoddy Region, it is clear that some mechanism for protecting this unique and vital area needs to established. One of the key new developments will be tidal power and Head Harbour Passage has already been studied for this purpose by the Irvings. How will this be handled I wonder?
The following publication describes the Quoddy Region and outlines its importance ecologically and in human terms:
The next study is the original draft outlining why the Quoddy Area is important and why it was chosen as a potential marine park over other areas on the east coast.
