Location
Key Information
| 36 km2 | MARINE AREA |
| 36 km2 | TOTAL AREA i |
Regulations: Government of Canada
Boundary: Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database (Unmodified)
2.0
July 2023
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Purpose
The Sainte-Marie Islands Migratory Bird Sanctuary is located in the Côte-Nord region, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, approximately 20 kilometers from the village of Harrington Harbour. Established in 1925 to protect common eider and other seabird colonies during nesting season, this sanctuary is one of the richest nesting sites in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Of all of the sanctuaries that exist in the Côte-Nord region, it is in this one that seabirds are the most abundant and diversified.
Species of Concern: ring-billed gull, great black-backed gull, great cormorant, double-crested cormorant, black guillemot, red-throated loon, black-legged kittiwake
Regulations Summary
Restrictions
The primary purpose of Migratory Bird Sanctuaries is the protection of migratory birds from killing, harm and harassment during a critical part of their life cycle, such as breeding, nesting, moulting, or staging and stopover during their migration. Unless a permit has been issued by the Minister of the Environment authorizing such activity, the Regulations prohibit the following activities in a Migratory Bird Sanctuary:
1. no person shall hunt migratory birds;
2. no person shall disturb, destroy or take the nests of migratory birds;
3. no person shall have in their possession a live migratory bird, or a carcass, skin, nest or egg of a migratory bird (a resident of a Migratory Bird Sanctuary may have in their possession migratory birds lawfully killed outside a Migratory Bird Sanctuary);
4.no person shall have in their possession in a Migratory Bird Sanctuary any firearm; or any hunting appliance except as otherwise provided in these Regulations (does not apply to residents of a Migratory Bird Sanctuary);
5. no person shall permit a dog or cat to run at large in a Migratory Bird Sanctuary;
6. no person shall carry on any activity that is harmful to migratory birds or the eggs, nests or habitat of migratory birds, except under the authority of a permit for those Migratory Bird Sanctuaries on provincial, territorial and federal lands.
Allowed
1. First Nations have a right to access and hunt within the sanctuary.