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In November of 2020, the government of Tristan da Cunha, a four-island archipelago in the South Atlantic, announced that it is creating the fourth-largest marine “no-take” reserve in the world. The new marine reserve will encompass 265,347 square miles, making it almost three times larger than the United Kingdom. Tristan da Cunha, a British territory, will protect 90% of the waters around the island chain by banning fishing, mining, and other extractive activities. What makes it so special? “This is a place that has a unique ecosystem that is found nowhere else,” National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala remarked, ant is notable for its kelp forests and as a critical nursery for blue sharks.
Why This Matters: As National Geographic states, while 8% of the world’s ocean territory is protected at some level, commercial fishing is banned in only 2.6%. A recent study by leading scientists in the field found that marine protection leads to greater abundance for nearby fishing. Expanding current protected areas by even 5 percent, the study found, could boost global fish catch by at least 20 percent. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are “a conservation silver bullet.” This is one of the reasons why scientists recommend that we increase fully protected marine areas to 30% of the globe by 2030.
Spillover Effect
As we reported last month, the study’s findings were significant because they are contrary to the public’s belief that increasing marine protection creates a decrease in the number of fish caught by fishers. Instead, the study, which appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, further corroborated established scientific evidence that no-take marine reserves instead increase food supplies because they result in larger catches by fishers. Marine protected areas in which fish stocks are left undisturbed can produce a “spillover” effect — in other words, an abundance of fish from a protected area “spills over” into areas outside those no-fishing zones where fishers can catch them.
30×30
Fully protecting most of the area around Tristan da Cunha has been an objective of the National Geographic Society’s Campaign for Nature Initiative, which calls for 30 percent of the ocean to be protected. Protecting 30%, according to their research, would create numerous benefits for ecosystems beyond boosting fish stocks for food. The campaign also argues that safeguarding 30% of the ocean will also help protect critically endangered species from extinction. “We have 10 years to protect 30 percent of the ocean if we want to stop the extinction of species,” says Sala.
Tristan da Cunha Cooperation
Tristan da Cunha’s announcement is part of the U.K.’s Blue Belt Programme, which, as of today, safeguards 2.7 million square miles of marine ecosystems around the world mostly around small island territories under the control of the U.K. government. This new sanctuary is the result of a collaboration among the governments plus a number of conservation groups, including the U.K.’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the National Geographic’s Society’s Pristine Seas initiative, along with Conservation International and the Pew Trusts. Currently, only 245 people of Scottish, American, Dutch, and Italian heritage live there on the island’s only village, called Edinburgh of the Seven Seas.
One of our nation’s best-kept secrets is that we have national parks in the ocean — not right offshore — but out in the blue. And yesterday, one of them was tripled in size after years of work by non-profits, the Texas and Tennessee Aquariums, and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, that supports these blue […]
New York state selected Norwegian energy giant Equinor to build and supply clean energy from two offshore wind facilities in one of the largest renewable energy deals ever in the United States, according to Reuters.
Why This Matters: Offshore wind projects are a highly anticipated source of clean, renewable energy — but have been hard to get off the ground so far.
By Eric Schwaab, Senior Vice President, Environmental Defense Fund These are challenging times for our oceans and fisheries. Climate impacts, so evident along our coasts, in our forests, and on our farms, are even more disruptive to our oceans. Fish stocks are shifting at unprecedented rates and in unexpected ways. Fishermen are traveling farther to […]
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