AN ANALYSIS OF MARINE PROTECTED AREAS IN BRITISH-COLUMBIA, CANADA, USING A MARINE ECOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION

This paper presents an analysis of marine protected areas in British C olumbia using the recently created British Columbia Marine Ecological Classification. The classification is hierarchical in nature and delin eates provincial marine areas into 12 ''ecosections'' based on biophys ical characteristics, and 619 ''ecounits'' based on current, depth, ex posure, relief, and substrate. Protected areas were assessed as a perc entage of total marine area and shoreline length for each ecosection a nd ecounit. Results indicate that 1.25% of British Columbia's marine a reas have some degree of protection. if the abyssal (> 1,000 m) region s are excluded, this number rises to 4.22%. For British Columbia's 29, 489 lan of shoreline, 14.36% is protected in some way. Results also in dicate that high exposure, high current, and hard substrate environmen ts have greater representation than other areas. The British Columbia Marine Ecological Classification is also being used as a tool in the e stablishment of marine reserves based on a representative ecosystems a pproach, and it is being used in the development of a GAP analysis met hodology for marine environments.