Salish Sea Marine Bird Monitoring and Conservation Program

Establishing a marine bird monitoring and conservation program in the Salish Sea supports the Government of Canada’s response to the National Energy Board’s (NEB) (now Canada Energy Regulator’s (CER)) Reconsideration Report for the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) Project. In this report, the NEB recommended that the Government of Canada develop and implement a marine bird monitoring and protection program for the Salish Sea.

The overall goal of the Salish Sea Marine Bird Monitoring and Conservation Program (the Program) is to understand the impacts of marine shipping and other marine-based human activities on marine birds and their habitats in the Salish Sea. The Program, paired with Indigenous-led monitoring efforts such as those supported by the Salish Sea Initiative, will inform future actions to protect marine birds in the region.

The Program will focus on achieving four primary outcomes:

1. establish current baselines of marine bird abundance and distribution, including for species at risk, through multi-year and multi-season monitoring
2. gather and analyze current baseline information to assess the impacts of marine shipping and other marine-based human activities on marine birds in the Salish Sea
3. identify actions to minimize the impact of human activities on marine birds and ecosystems and support adaptive management decision-making in the Salish Sea
4. support Indigenous engagement and Indigenous monitoring activities

The Program will contribute to Federal Sustainable Development Strategy goals and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.

Through the collection of current baseline data and research on migratory marine birds, Environment Climate Change Canada (ECCC) will have a better understanding of the health of the marine birds in the Salish Sea, contributing to the Sustainable Development Goal 14 Life below water.