Marine land?

GIVEN THAT CANADA boasts the longest coastline in the world (some 243,000 kilometres), one might assume that Canadians would have a correspondingly great interest in and knowledge of the waters surrounding our nation. The reality, unfortunately, is that many of us know little about our country’s marine environment. Thousands of kilometres of it remain largely uncharted. And mystery surrounds the habits and habitats of even the largest of Canada’s — and the world’s — animals, the blue whale ( above), a species bigger than any of the dinosaurs. We have only vague estimates of its population and we don’t know where it breeds or when it mates. This is all to say that there’s a huge part of Canadian geography that’s little-known and seemingly underappreciated. Given that this magazine’s mandate is to make Canada better known to Canadians and the world, we’re redoubling our efforts on that front when it comes to our marine environment. In this issue, for instance, you’ll find a story on the future of Canada’s marine protected areas (“Under pressure,” page 48) by renowned environmental journalist Alanna Mitchell. Mitchell dug into the topic of marine protected areas to help us spread the word about what and where they are and why they matter. Today, Canada protects less than one per cent of its marine territory, compared with about 10 per cent of its terrestrial area. Time we dove a bit deeper, no?