Canada's Ocean, Freshwater & US

Saguenay-St. Lawrence

https://canadaoceanmap.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/dfo-Saguenay-St.-Lawrence.jpg
Location: Quebec
Conservation Objectives

To protect the park’s biodiversity, which includes more than 2,200 species such as beluga whales, blue whales and the Barrow’s goldeneye duck.

Prohibitions

It is prohibited to feed or touch the marine animals, or to disturb them while they are resting, feeding, or nursing.

Why (environmental context for protection)

The park’s most important function is to protect the living organisms found within it. Many of these species, such as the blue whale and North Atlantic right whale, are at risk. In addition to resident species, many migratory marine mammals travel thousands of kilometres each year to reach its waters. Several natural features of the park, such as the currents and upwellings of its deep waters, its tides, the topography of the sea floor, and the meeting of fresh water from rivers and the Great Lakes with the salty water of the Atlantic, all mean that its waters contain an abundance of food for large animals like whales and seals. The park’s most famous inhabitant is the beluga. Although they remain a species at risk, one of the objectives of the park is to restore beluga numbers to their pre-commercial fishing levels.