A plan to create a vast network of marine protected areas stretching from Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border inched closer to reality this Monday after the governments of Canada, British Columbia and over a dozen First Nations released a draft plan to the public. If enacted, the marine protected areas (MPAs) would protect nearly a third of the Northern Shelf Bioregion — a 100,000-square-kilometre tract of ocean also known as the Great Bear Sea.