Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area (french: Aire marine nationale de conservation du Lac-Supérieur) is a National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA) on the north shore of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, and is a unit of the national park system. Established on September 1, 2015, it is the largest freshwater marine protected area in the world. Although national marine parks and a reserve had been created previously, and managed as NMCAs, this was the first area in Canada to be designated a "National Marine Conservation Area" as defined by the Marine Conservation Areas Act. Plans to create it were first announced by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

on October 25, 2007, in

Nipigon, Ontario Nipigon () is a township in Thunder Bay District, Northwestern Ontario, Canada, located along the west side of the Nipigon River and south of the small Lake Helen running between Lake Nipigon and Lake Superior. Lake Nipigon is located approximate ...

. The area is a unit of Canada's national park system administered by

Parks Canada Parks Canada (PC; french: Parcs Canada),Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 48 National Parks, th ...

. The conservation area extends eastward from

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

, from

Thunder Cape The Sleeping Giant is a series of mesas formed by the erosion of thick, basaltic sill (geology), sills on Sibley Peninsula which resembles a giant lying on its back when viewed from the west to north-northwest section of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Ca ...

in the west, at the tip of

Sleeping Giant Provincial Park Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, established in 1944 as Sibley Provincial Park and renamed in 1988, is a park located on the Sibley Peninsula in Northwestern Ontario, east of Thunder Bay. The nearest communities are Pass Lake, in the township o ...

, to

Bottle Point A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal stop ...

in the east, and stretches southward to the Canada-US border, linking with

Isle Royale National Park Isle Royale National Park is an American national park consisting of Isle Royale – known as Minong to the native Ojibwe – along with more than 400 small adjacent islands and the surrounding waters of Lake Superior, in the state of Michigan. ...

. The

Nipigon River The Nipigon River is located in Thunder Bay District in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. The river is about long (or when measured to the head of Ombabika River) and , and flows from Lake Nipigon to Nipigon Bay on Lake Superior at the community of ...

and Lake Nipigon lie to the north.

Designation process

Proposals to protect the area were first suggested in the mid-1990s, and formal plans were first announced in 2002. The marine conservation area was proposed after discussion with provincial and First Nations representatives. The First Nations in the area, represented by Wilfred King, the regional

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of the northern Superior region, endorsed the proposal once they were satisfied that it respected the Robinson Superior Treaty of 1850.

distributed questionnaires to local residents as a public consultation. 67% of respondents supported the "largest possible designation area," with 13% opposing any NMCA designation, and the remaining supporting some form of NMCA. In June 2015, the federal government introduced a bill to create the NMCA, which received

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

on June 24. The law specified that the NMCA would come into force on either the day of approval or on September 1, 2015—whichever came latest. With approval given in June, the park was legally created on September 1.

Ecology

Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area covers roughly of lakebed, its overlaying freshwater, and associated shoreline on of islands and mainland. The area is home to numerous species including

heron The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (Bird of prey, raptor) in the family (biology), family Falco ...

s, and

bald eagles The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

. The spawning and schooling waters of deep coldwater fish, such as whitefish, lake herring, walleye, and lake trout will be protected by this zone. Caribou foraging and calving areas are located on shore. Lake Superior is home to about 70 fish species. The official designation prevents resource extraction or other operations which may damage the aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems in the conservation area. However, per the agreement with the First Nations, it does not exclude all commercial marine activity, such as shipping, and commercial and sport fishing.

Acquisition of Wilson Islands

In 2009 the Wilson Islands were purchased from private owners. These eight almost untouched islands lie off

Rossport Rossport ( ga, Ros Dumhach; also known as ''Rosdoagh'') is a Gaeltacht village and townland in northwest County Mayo, Ireland. It is within the barony of Erris and parish of Kilcommon. It lies close to the mouth of Broadhaven Bay on the headl ...

in Ontario waters. The acquisition was made by the governments of Canada and Ontario, and the Nature Conservancy of both Canada and the United States, with donated funds, much of which were contributed by U.S. donors. The acquisition had substantial support from the

Pays Plat First Nation Pays Plat First Nation is a small First Nation reserve community located near Rossport, Ontario, Canada, about northeast of Thunder Bay. The Pays Plat 51 Reserve is in the boundaries of the territory described in the Robinson-Superior Treaty of ...

, which will cooperate in stewardship of the islands. The islands include cliffs, both rocky and sandy shorelines, coastal wetlands, and deep forests. Flora include the rare mountain fir moss and northern woodsia fern; fauna include

, and shorebirds. Their habitat will now be protected from mining and other development. By this acquisition, the marine conservation area, already the largest freshwater protected area in the world, acquires and preserves over 4,700 acres (1,900 hectares) of land in the heart of the preserve.

Relics of human history

Historic shipwrecks lie on the seabed of the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area, including the Gunilda at Rossport. The shores have two areas of First Nation pictographs and

Sibley Peninsula The Sibley Peninsula is a long and wide peninsula in Ontario, Canada, on Lake Superior. It projects into the lake from Superior's north shore, and separates Thunder Bay to the west from Black Bay to the east.''Sleeping Giant Background Informat ...

has archaeological sites from Paleoindian,

archaic Archaic is a period of time preceding a designated classical period, or something from an older period of time that is also not found or used currently: *List of archaeological periods **Archaic Sumerian language, spoken between 31st - 26th cent ...

, and

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

settlements.

References

External links