The Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management (ESSIM) Initiative is a collaborative ocean planning process being led and facilitated by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Maritimes Region, under Canada’s Oceans Act of 1997. The Initiative was announced by the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans in December 1998.

 

 

In contrast to traditional sector-based management, which addresses individual industries or activities on a case-by-case basis, the ESSIM planning process considers the ecosystem and all of its users comprehensively.

 

The Initiative brings regulatory authorities from all levels of government together with a wide array of ocean stakeholders to work collaboratively.

 

 

The Eastern Scotian Shelf planning area encompasses some 325,000 km2, an area more the six times the size of the adjacent province of Nova Scotia. The area was selected for integrated ocean management because of its important living and non-living marine resources, high biological diversity and productivity, increasing levels of use and competition for ocean space and resources, and growing concern around human pressures on the marine environment.

 

 

The Plan identifies a set of required conditions for effective and appropriate spatial and temporal planning and management. It states that marine spatial planning should occur within a context of agreed objectives and guiding principles, and undertaken carefully through a coordinated and transparent process. The Plan also stresses the need to recognize constraints and challenges for marine spatial planning owing to the dynamic nature of marine environment, lack of ecosystem knowledge, and the multiple jurisdictional context for ocean management.

 

 

Some tools for advancing marine spatial planning have already been developed through the ESSIM process. These include the development of Geographical Information Systems to provide decision support for ocean use, management, and conservation (e.g., MPA network planning), as well as the public release of an atlas of human activities in the region.

 

 

The ESSIM experience can provide some useful lessons about the process of integrated ocean management. Although it is often difficult and time consuming to engage stakeholders in an effective and meaningful way, it is an important step in the process and cannot be overlooked. The Plan has been developed and endorsed through a multi-stakeholder process with involvement from all ocean users, interests and regulators. The underlying premise is that a management plan developed through collaboration will be broadly accepted and used by all involved in the process. This sense of ownership of the Plan is crucial to move forward with the implementation of its objectives and strategies.