Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 45 THe lAST WORD By mAj tim duNNe (ret'd) the royal canadian Navy's canadian leaders at O nly a few Canadians un- derstand that Canada is a maritime nation and that the world's maritime com- mons are as critical to to- day's Canada as the supply convoys were to Second World War Britain. The world's oceans cover 70 per cent of the earth's sur- face and are our oldest, most economical and most utilized avenue of transportation of food, goods and materials. Euphemis- tically called the "steel highway," on any given day, some 42,000 cargo ships carry between five and six million sea containers – 80 per cent of global commerce. Two- thirds of the world's oil travels by sea on 11,000 bulk carriers. Ninety per cent of the world's population lives within 100 kilometers of the sea, and 95 per cent of intercontinental communica- tion runs along cables on the sea floor. Maritime commerce has been the basis of enterprise since the second millennium BCE and has been growing since. Univer- sity of Nantes Professor Patrick Chaumette told a Paris audience at the Making the Sea More Human in May 2018, the expansion of human activities at sea has mandated "rebuilding the concepts of maritime and ocean law…the sea is one of our new fron- tiers. The development of human activities at sea has led to a transformation of the Law of the Sea and Maritime Law," the main purpose of which "is to civilize the new activities opened up by technological innovations." Ships carry almost half of Canada's trade, making seaborne trade critical to our pros- perity as a nation. Efthimios Mitropoulos wrote in his 2005 article "Putting the Seafarer First" in Transport International Magazine that without commercial ships and the seafar- ers who sail them, half the world would freeze, and the other half would starve. Canada is a maritime nation with a mari- time geostrategic position that is unique, challenging, diverse, and complex: • It has significant coastlines fronting on three oceans: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic. The Canadian Arctic is a total of 1.4 million square kilometers. Its saltwater coastline is 243,797 kilometers long – the world's longest – and includes the Canadian Archipelago's 36,563 is- lands. • The exclusive economic zone is the world's fifth largest: 5,543,913 square kilometers. • Canada's ocean estate covers 7 million square kilometres – equal to 70 per cent of our land mass • Only two provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta, do not have saltwater coastlines. • We share a border with four other na- tions: The United States along the south- ern border, and the 3378 kilometer Alaska-Canada border; a maritime border with Denmark (at Greenland); Russia, where the western hemisphere's north meets the eastern hemisphere's north; and France, with the islands of Saint- Pierre and Miquelon, 25 kilometers off Newfoundland's Burin peninsula. However, many Canadians are oblivious to how materials and resources arrive at their stores, shops and supermarket shelves. And unless or until the flow is slowed or halted, they are likely to remain unaware of the importance of and Canada's dependence upon the maritime commons – a collective state of unconsciousness called "maritime blindness." Sea (ClaS) program Commodore Marta Mulkins, Commander Royal Canadian Naval Reserve, the Canadian Leaders at Sea participants and members of HMCS Winnipeg's ship's company. Photo: DND.

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