Mr. Richard Cronin:

I thank the Chairman again for his question. The easiest way to answer it is to say that we have not drafted the legislation yet so the opportunity does not exist to do as he suggests.

The second thing that occurs to me is to ask if this is a good thing to do. When I consider the interaction between spatial planning and marine protected areas, there is a synergy between them. If we create a marine protected area under national legislation, it would seem like a responsible thing to do to ensure that all activities that would occur inside the marine protected area, or would have an effect on it, should be considered in how they have an effect on the conservation objectives. If we have a space and we decide there is something on the seafloor that is very important and that we want to protect, we would then consider what activities are permissible in that space. Could one have navigation across the top of a marine protected area and site? Could one have recreation? Is there any level of human activity on the seafloor such as scientific research or the laying of communication or energy cables? One would have to decide if it were possible for these to co-exist. Outside of that designated space on the map, what sort of zone of influence around that would be appropriate would depend on what one is protecting?