Fundian Channel - Browns Bank Area of Interest

The Fundian Channel – Browns Bank Area of Interest (AOI) is a future marine protected area (MPA) located off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia. The area is home to dense concentrations of cold-water corals, endangered groundfish, and migratory species travelling to and from the Gulf of Maine. Click on the headings above to find out more about this unique place and why it should be protected. 

Protection tool | Oceans Act Marine Protected Area 

Current status | Area of Interest (proposed MPA)

Approximate % of Canada’s ocean territory | 0.12% 

Date identified | March, 2018 

Approximate location | 120 km South of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia 

Protection goal | To conserve and protect the ecological integrity of the area, including its biodiversity, productivity, ecosystem components, and special natural features

Conservation priorities | Cold-water corals, sponges, juvenile groundfish, female lobster, beaked whales, blue whales, Leach's storm petrel

Fundian Channel - Browns Bank was identified as an Area of Interest by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) in March 2018, beginning the MPA establishment process.

Since then, DFO have initiated consultations and established an advisory committee to help capture input from Indigenous communities, government partners and stakeholders including industry and environmental organizations. DFO have also been collecting and analyzing data on the AOI.

The consultations and data analysis will inform the conservation objectives for the future MPA, it's boundary, allowable activities, and management measures.

The Fundian Channel - Brown's Bank AOI is home to dense aggregations of cold-water corals and sponges. Colonies of cold-water corals provide important habitat for fish and invertebrate, as feeding and nursery grounds and refuge from predation. 

Corals are long-lived and slow growing sessile creatures, making them particularly vulnerable to human impacts. Coral reefs around the world are suffering as a result of anthropogenic climate change, so it is important to protect known aggregations from destructive human activities.

Within the AOI there is a diverse representation of benthic habitats for fish and invertebrate communities, many of which are endangered or threatened. Examples include the Atlantic Cod, Atlantic Wolffish, Winter Skate, Thorny Skate, White Hake, and Cusk. 

Many juvenile Atlantic halibut and large female American lobsters are also found here. Protecting nursery habitats and sites with juveniles can help ensure sustainable fisheries. 

The AOI is an area of high productivity associated with the presence of large pelagic fishes, sea turtles, and cetaceans. Upwelling brings nutrients from the deeper water to the surface, leading to high Plankton and small fish concentrations, which attract larger foraging animals.

This high food availability, combined with the oceanographic conditions, positions the AOI as a migratory corridor to and from the Gulf of Maine for many large pelagic fishes, such as basking sharks.

Habitat for several whale species can be found within the AOI, including the Sowerby’s Beaked Whale (Special Concern – COSEWIC) and Northern Bottlenose Whale (Endangered – SARA).

The Fundian Channel - Browns Bank AOI is also a Blue whale foraging area. Blue whales are an Endangered (SARA, IUCN) species, they dive deep to engulf and filter massive amounts of water for their food source – krill! 

Since Blue whales are such large animals (98 feet long and up to 199 tonnes), they have to feed strategically to conserve energy, so their efforts are focused on the largest and most dense patches of krill. Foraging areas, such as the Fundian Channel - Browns Bank, are crucial for their survival as they continue to be affected by noise pollution and other human contaminants, ship traffic, and reductions in food availability.

Closer to the surface, the AOI provides a foraging ground for marine birds, including Leach’s Storm Petrel (Vulnerable, IUCN).

Seabirds concentrate over areas of upwelling, like the Fundian Channel - Browns Bank. The nutrients brought to the surface by upwelling provide food sources for many trophic levels, and the birds fly low over the water to feed on small crustaceans, small squid and fish. In fact they rarely sit still on the surface!

Along the edge of the Scotian Shelf you can find deep canyons such as the Fundian Channel and the Gully, which was Atlantic Canada's first MPA. These canyons, and the seamounts off the coast of Maine in the States, are each home to dense coral aggregations, important nursey and juvenile habitats for fish, and a wealth of other marine life.

Maintaining ecosystem connectivity between canyons and seamounts, through a network of MPAs, is needed to ensure the viability of fish, coral and other marine populations in the North West Atlantic.

Canada has committed to protecting 25% of its ocean by 2025, working towards 30% by 2030. And Canada is not alone, at the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, nations adopted the Global Biodiversity Framework agreeing to the 30% target. This is the minimum protection recommended by scientists that will reverse biodiversity loss and restore ocean health, as well managed MPAs have been proven to be one of the most effective tools to protect ocean ecosystems, rebuild biodiversity and help species adapt to climate change.

Protecting the Fundian Channel - Browns Bank AOI as an MPA will help towards this goal, whilst ensuring that the diverse ecosystems and species of the North West Atlantic are safeguarded for future generations.

The deep sea plays an important role in regulating our climate by storing heat and carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, this means that with increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and warmer ocean temperatures, we are seeing increased warming and acidification of deep waters. These changes will affect deep-sea fauna, like corals, sponges and groundfish species.

Protected areas like the Fundian Channel - Browns Bank are an important conservation tool, to protect species that are already under stress from the impacts of climate change from other threats, such as bottom trawling and seismic testing. Protecting these species is necessary in order to ensure their long term survival.

Fundian Channel - Browns Bank may also act as a refuge for sensitive benthic species over time, known as a climate change refugia. The unique oceanographic conditions and high species diversity for coral and sponge species makes it an important site to protect longterm. An essential component of a climate change refugia is the absence or reduction of disturbance or stressful conditions, therefore the key to the Fundian Channel - Browns Bank functioning effectively as a refugia is protecting it from other damaging activities.

https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans/aoi-si/fundian-fundy-browns-eng.html

https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/profiles-profils/blue-whale-atl-rorqual-bleu-eng.html

https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12247

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03371-z

https://www.academia.edu/20419664/Future_proofing_marine_protected_area_networks_for_cold_water_coral_reefs

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.14996