Oceans Act Marine Protected Areas

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are one among a number of spatial management tools, and are defined as areas that are established for the long-term, and managed through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.

Currently, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a number of MPAs designated under the Oceans Act and Areas of Interest for new MPAs at various stages of progress towards designation. These areas are ecologically significant, with species and/or features that require special management consideration. 

An Oceans Act MPA can be established for any of the six conservation purposes outlined in the Act:

• The conservation and protection of commercial and non-commercial fishery resources, including marine mammals, and their habitats; 

• The conservation and protection of endangered or threatened marine species, and their habitats; 

• The conservation and protection of unique habitats; 

• The conservation and protection of marine areas of high biodiversity or biological productivity;

• The conservation and protection of any other marine resource or habitat as is necessary to fulfill the mandate of the Minister; and

• The conservation and protection of marine areas for the purposes of maintaining ecological integrity

Datasets available for download

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated October 20, 2025, 02:40 (UTC)
Created October 20, 2025, 02:40 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Biota, Boundaries, Environment, Oceans, Planning Cadastre
Title
Title for the Dataset.
Oceans Act Marine Protected Areas
Description
A description of the dataset.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are one among a number of spatial management tools, and are defined as areas that are established for the long-term, and managed through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.

Currently, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a number of MPAs designated under the Oceans Act and Areas of Interest for new MPAs at various stages of progress towards designation. These areas are ecologically significant, with species and/or features that require special management consideration. 

An Oceans Act MPA can be established for any of the six conservation purposes outlined in the Act:

• The conservation and protection of commercial and non-commercial fishery resources, including marine mammals, and their habitats; 

• The conservation and protection of endangered or threatened marine species, and their habitats; 

• The conservation and protection of unique habitats; 

• The conservation and protection of marine areas of high biodiversity or biological productivity;

• The conservation and protection of any other marine resource or habitat as is necessary to fulfill the mandate of the Minister; and

• The conservation and protection of marine areas for the purposes of maintaining ecological integrity
Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2016-03-20
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
Field Value
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License
License used to access the dataset.
Open Government Licence - Canada
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/a1e18963-25dd-4219-a33f-1a38c4971250
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada | Pêches et Océans Canada
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Marine Planning and Conservation Directorate, [email protected]
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
[email protected]
Author
Author of the dataset.
Author Email
Email of the author.
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
Field Value
Version
Version of the datatset
None
Source
Source of the dataset.
None
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
Field Value
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
Field Value
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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