Linking Culture and the Environment

78 Tourism, Sustainability and the Social Milieux
of actions designed to reduce pollution is proceeding, albeit slowly. As the
initial ‘raison d’être’ of the programme is met, attention is turning towards
expanding the demonstration status of lake-wide management by focusing
more on the goal of sustainability. Issues of sustainability – in forestry, fisheries
and tourism – are somewhat easier to define, given the low populations
and environmental impacts of human activity on the Canadian side of the
Lake Superior basin.
As the public profile of the lake has risen, Lake Superior has come to be
viewed as a unique resource for tourism. Outfitters focus kayaking and other
water-based activities on its shore zone, especially in protected parts of the
north shore such as the Rossport Islands. Marketing associations have been
luring power and sail boaters to the north shore with promises of ‘wilderness
cruising’.
Lake Superior’s north shore and islands (Fig. 5.1) comprise an area of land
and water from Terrace Bay/Slate Islands in the east to Thunder Cape at the
foot of the Sibley Peninsula in the west. Determining the terrestrial boundary
for the region is problematic. On one hand, the edge of the Lake Superior
watershed might be selected (e.g. Sibicki, 1995); it, however, is roughly 100 km
Fig. 5.1. Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area. (Adapted from Parks Canada/Ian
Joyce, 2002.)