By Rochelle Baker Local Journalism Initiative Reporter A $60-million surge in provincial funding will protect the “extraordinary beauty” of B.C.’s Great Bear Sea, said Premier David Eby. The Indigenous-led funding allows coastal First Nations to push forward with a vast marine conservation network in their traditional territories to protect marine ecosystems, create new jobs and economic opportunities, and foster sustainable fisheries and tourism, the premier said at a funding announcement Tuesday. Also known as the Northern Shelf Bioregion, the area spans the coast from Quadra Island north to the Alaska border and includes Haida Gwaii and B.C.’s central coast. Often referred to as the “Galapagos of the North,” the region’s waters and lands have been stewarded by First Nations for millennia, Eby noted. “This grant will provide stable funding for…