A guided reading path
You may come to the ocean through government, regulation, academia, applied research, philanthropy or another public institution. This path begins with evidence and governance, then follows how financial choices affect what becomes possible.
First
These pieces connect policy, evidence and institutional design to the financial decisions operating underneath them.
Canada built the financing structure the conservation world now copies, and it works. It also set out to establish sixteen new marine protected areas by 2025 and established one. The part of that shortfall money could have fixed is smaller than it looks.
Read this piece →Canada has no single authority in charge of ocean conservation. Legal power, money, accountability and the work on the water sit in different hands, and outcomes turn on whether those reach each other
Read this piece →Blue finance has no governing body. The international rules are voluntary, written by five organizations together. Canada is now writing its own, with marine protection scheduled for a later phase.
Read this piece →Next
Follow those connections into regulation, public investment, Indigenous governance, industry strategy and the evidence used to make decisions.
The High Seas Treaty, formally the BBNJ Agreement, creates the first process for protecting biodiversity in the two-thirds of the ocean beyond any country's jurisdiction. It entered into force in January 2026. What it can do, what it cannot, and why Canada is not yet a Party.
Read →The Canada Infrastructure Bank lends federal capital at rates no commercial lender can match, but only to projects that generate revenue. A CAD 1 billion loan to BC Ferries shows what that buys, and the revenue test explains which ocean assets it can reach and which it cannot.
Read →In Canada, the path to ocean outcomes runs through Indigenous governance. The arrangements that last are built inside it, and governance left outside a structure can leave it exposed.
Read →Not all ocean protection is equal. Less than half a percent of Canadian waters are strongly protected; the rest is a patchwork of partial restrictions across three federal departments and a fourth, looser category. A designated area without staff, budget, and monitoring is just a boundary on a map.
Read →Open-net pen salmon farming ends in coastal BC on June 30, 2029. DFO has launched a systematic review of the sea lice evidence, the peer-reviewed literature points in several directions, and no independent analysis exists of what replacing BC production would cost.
Read →Collecting and processing ocean data has got cheaper and faster. Knowing what we are doing to the ocean has not. Observation, interpretation and assurance are three different problems.
Read →