Who We Are
Save Our Seas and Shores is a coalition of fishing organizations, environmental and tourism groups, coastal landowners, First Nations organizations and individuals, and citizens who are dedicated to defending the Gulf of St. Lawrence from offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling.
What We Do
For over 14 years, Save Our Seas and Shores has galvanized public outcry against the oil and gas industry’s encroachment into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We continue to press governments at all levels for a moratorium, in order to protect a unique, biodiverse ecosystem which supports multi-billion dollar fishery and tourism industries. The Gulf of St. Lawrence is home to over 2,000 species, including the endangered blue whale, who spawn, nurse and migrate year round through this productive ecosystem. All of this life deserves nothing short of a complete moratorium on oil and gas exploration and drilling.
In 1999, Save Our Seas and Shores formed as a coalition to protect Gulf Nova Scotia (the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence) from oil and gas leases irresponsibly issued by the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board on both sides of the iconic Cape Breton Highlands National Park. While the Nova Scotia government of the day did not stand up for our Gulf and issue a moratorium, a Public Review Commission was held. Following this, and the three years of intense campaigning by Save Our Seas and Shores, the oil company did not pursue exploration in Gulf Nova Scotia.
Our current campaign for a moratorium for the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence began shortly after the disastrous BP Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. We learned that the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) had issued a lease to Corridor Resources, the same company that had tried to get into the southern end of the Gulf a decade earlier. This junior company, with no offshore experience, is proposing to drill in the middle of one of the most productive channels of the entire Gulf, in the “Old Harry” prospect, between Newfoundland and the Magdalene Islands (Quebec).
Since then, we’ve been fully engaged in organizing public events, doing media interviews, creating alliances, and making our views known to politicians. Our efforts have brought key allies on board including Farley Mowat, actors Ethan Hawke and Jason Priestley; musicians Philip Glass, Teresa Doyle and Lizzie Shanks; and scientists such as Dr. Lindy Weilgart, an international expert on the impacts of seismic on marine life.
Save Our Seas and Shores works closely with many NGOs and groups who support the call for a moratorium, including the Sierra Club’s Atlantic Chapter, Council of Canadians, Ecology Action Centre, and our sister coalition the St. Lawrence Coalition Saint-Laurent.
While we are non-partisan, Save Our Seas and Shores will work with any politician from any party who supports a moratorium on oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Gulf.
Join Us
Jump in and join our efforts to defend the Gulf of St. Lawrence! Here’s how.
Contact Us
Save Our Seas and Shores Coalition PO Box 47 Merigomish, Nova Scotia, Canada
B0K 1G0