Defend Our Pacific North Coast

Quadra Island at sundown — Quadra Island by Alexandra Barron

Coasts and Ocean | Government and Policy

Alex Barron | December 12, 2025

The urgent need to protect our ocean from political backsliding and big corporate Interest 

From my home on Quadra Island in British Columbia, where the Salish sea meets the Great Bear Sea, I consider myself fortunate that I can watch whales breach and buy fresh, ethical seafood straight from fishers at the dock. I fell in love with this place several years ago, I’ve fought to protect this amazing place ever since joining the CPAWS-BC team in 2013, when we first stood against Enbridge and oil tankers threatening this coast.

But today my sense of hope is shadowed by a deep, rising anger. Last week’s announcement that Canada is prepared to revoke its moratorium on oil tanker traffic in the Great Bear Sea feels like a betrayal – a political move that puts industry profits ahead of the coast, its wildlife and the communities who depend on them.

After decades of progress, why are we risking everything for short-term gain?

The habitats that support our whales, herring and salmon are already under siege: kelp forests are vanishing, sea stars have died off, and unpredictability and vulnerability of fish populations are causing conflict across industries and communities.

Old photo of Alex Barron in England — Alex in Scarborough, England

Even as humpback whales recover (though now at increasing risk of being mowed down by fast moving ships), tourism is booming (a blessing and a curse when you need to get a ferry), and collaborative efforts like the 2022 MPA network plan to protect some of the most important and vulnerable habitats and species across BC’s North Coast offer hope – the threat of bitumen oil tankers looms larger than ever.

This isn’t just policy – it’s personal. My partner works with Guardians from local First Nations to monitor critical habitats like estuaries and kelp so that we can do a better job of understanding the threats and protecting them.

I’ve spent years working to safeguard these coasts, and I know firsthand what’s at stake. I am not prepared to stand by while political decisions put my home, and the future of this coast, at risk. I am not only fighting for whales and herring and salmon, but for all of us, who depend on a healthy and thriving ocean.

My resolve is shaped by experience. Before coming to Canada, I grew up in England, where my first encounter with oil spills was as a17 year-old on a school biology trip to , a small seaside town on the edge of the North Sea. I remember the horror of finding tar balls smothering the rock pools we’d been studying.

Alex as a child on the beach in Scarborough, England

African penguins rescued after Treasure oil spill in South Africa in 2000.

That wasn’t the first time oil scarred a place I loved, nor the last. As a 10-year-old I watched the footage of oil smothered seabirds and volunteers in hazmat suits desperately trying to rescue them from the Exxon Valdez spill. Just 4 years later I was looking at the rainbow sheen of oil residue on the beaches in Shetland, where I spent my summers as a kid, after the Braer tanker ran aground in 1993. Later, as a young adult, I volunteered in Cape Town, South Africa, helping rescue and rehabilitate African penguins after the Treasure oil spill in 2000.

These memories are haunting me today. I don’t want to see my community in hazmat suits, pressure-washing rocky shorelines or rescuing oil-soaked wildlife. The coast is no place for tar balls or oil tankers. We are all dependent on these habitats – whales, fish, and people alike. That is why, like so many others, I’ll fight to the end of my days to protect this coast from political decisions that cave to big corporate interests and threaten our livelihoods.

Article written by:

Alex Barron
National Director
CPAWS Ocean Program

Now is the time to act.

If you care about the future of Canada’s Pacific North Coast, make your voice heard. Contact your local elected officials and speak up in your communities. Let’s show our leaders that the coast is not for sale – that we will not stand by while short-term interests put our livelihoods, our wildlife and our future at risk. We can build a strong economy and protect our environment at the same time. We can no longer choose; we have to do both.