The North American ECA

I have to appologize for the speed with which I posted the July 23 blog; I didn't read the whole draft.

The Canada/ USA proposal was endorsed by the "Technical Committee" who found that

• the application met the required guidelines,
  
• the breadth of the ECA was determined through application of the criteria in Appendix II, and was not based or linked to the extent of the EEZ
• approved the proposal to designate an ECA for the coastal waters of the United States and Canada...

My view differs on 2 points. One is that the submission overstates the effort by the proponents in regard to land-based pollution. The other is that the East Coast marine emissions from ships is blown offshore rather than inshore, therefore are based on poor science.

The fact that the most vulnerable area, the Canadian Arctic (north of 60) is being excluded from the ECA suggests poor science.

The ECA will be submitted for approval at MEPC.60, in March 2010.If approved we have an ECA by 2012.