A Marine Wildlife Area is a conservation

Conservation ethic

Conservation is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection. Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the natural world: its, fisheries, habitats, and biological diversity. Secondary focus is on materials conservation and energy conservation, which are seen as important to...

 status for a marine geographical region of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 that restricts most human activities on that region. It protects marine areas extending from the edge of territorial waters

Territorial waters

Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...

 to the boundary defined by Canada's Exclusive Economic Zone

Exclusive Economic Zone

Under the law of the sea, an exclusive economic zone is a seazone over which a state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including production of energy from water and wind. It stretches from the seaward edge of the state's territorial sea out to 200 nautical...

, that is, the areas between 12 and 200 nautical miles (370.4 km) from the coastline. Such areas are established and managed by the Canadian Wildlife Service

Canadian Wildlife Service

The Canadian Wildlife Service or CWS is a branch of the Department of the Environment, also known as Environment Canada, a department of the Government of Canada....

, a division of Environment Canada

Environment Canada

Environment Canada , legally incorporated as the Department of the Environment under the Department of the Environment Act Environment Canada (EC) (French: Environnement Canada), legally incorporated as the Department of the Environment under the Department of the Environment Act Environment...

. Provisions for their creation are defined in the Canada Wildlife Act

Canada Wildlife Act

The Canada Wildlife Act specifies the requirements for a geographic area in Canada to be designated a National Wildlife Area by the Canadian Wildlife Service division of Environment Canada...

.