Research Projects

Not all oils behave the same way when spilled into the marine environment.

Without marine shipping Canada would be a different place economically. Marine shipping opens up Canada’s markets to the world.

Essentially, any product or item in your life or house that came from outside of North America was probably transported by a ship.

There are three regions in Canada that are considered critical habitat for whales that overlap major shipping hubs in Canada. This includes the Pacific Coast and the Salish Sea as well as the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy.

There are many primary sources of underwater noise that affect marine mammals including commercial vessels, cracking ice, surface waves, earthquakes, marine life, storms, rain, pile driving, sonar, recreational vessels, seismic survey, snowmobiles, sonar and hydrothermal vents.

The ports across Canada that handle oil tankers include: Vancouver, Quebec City, Montreal, Saint John, NB, Port Hawkesbury, NS, Come-by-Chance, NF and Newfoundland offshore.

Since the 1970s the number of oil spills 7 tonnes or more has decreased from a high of more than 120.

Canada has four marine oil spill response organizations for its oceans and waterways including the Western Canadian Marine Response Organization, the Eastern Canadian Marine Response Organization, Point Tupper Marine Services and the Atlantic Environmental Response Team.

Oil transported as cargo in Canadian waters by region. Some 192 million tonnes are transported on the Atlantic coast compared to 6 million tonnes on the Pacific Coast.