Federal authorities have closed Canada’s only known live coral reef in the Pacific Ocean to all commercial and recreational bottom-contact fishing.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada says the indefinite closure came into effect on Feb. 14 for the Lophelia Reef, located in the Finlayson Channel of the British Columbia coast about 500 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.
The department says the reef was first discovered in 2021 and is the most northern known coral reef in the Pacific Ocean.
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