Exciting New Marine Protected Areas Around the World

Many of us fear that our oceans and their inhabitants won’t survive the looming dangers of climate change, plastic pollution, overfishing and heavy shipping traffic. However, the good news is that the world finally seems to be waking up to these very real threats and a sudden surge in designating marine protected areas (MPAs) appears to be underway. These newly established protected areas focus on our most vulnerable and diverse marine ecosystems, hoping to give key species a safe space to thrive in our increasingly noisy, busy and polluted world.

One of these protected areas has been in the pipeline for a long time, 33 years to be exact. During this time, communities, the government, scientists and environmental groups have been working together to help create what has recently been designated as a 1.2 million acre reserve protecting both land and sea in South America. The Peninsula Mitre Protected Area focusses on the southernmost point of the South American continent at Tierra Del Fuego. Here, the world’s largest colony of yellow-plumed penguins feed in cool waters whilst albatross dive from above. In fact, many species both live here and migrate here due to the high levels of food available, including southern otters, humpback whales, sea lions and the Fuegian steamer duck. However, the species are not the main focus of this protected area but the habitat they live in which forms an enormous carbon sink. Onshore, the land is carpeted in special peat bogs and a unique composition of mosses which allows this area to absorb 4.5 times more carbon than other peatlands, an ecosystem renowned for its abilities to lock carbon in the ground for hundreds of years. Underwater, sways of kelp forests perform the same role, taking in carbon dioxide and keeping it locked in our seas rather than swirling around in the atmosphere where it can contribute to climate change. Both these natural systems are incredibly important in helping us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and slowing the rate of warming around the world. The scheme also hopes to promote eco-tourism whilst preserving the heritage of the area which includes traces of hunter-gatherer existence and ancient shipwrecks.

On the polar opposite side of the Americas, an existing terrestrial protected area is seeing its boundary extended out to sea. The Great Bear Rainforest became a designated protected area around 10 years ago in the hope of preserving populations of sea wolves, salmon and grizzly bears as well as the pristine forests they live in. Now, the Great Bear Sea, a 10 million hectare corridor of ocean in British Colombia, has been added to the reserve in order to further protect local ecosystems. This area is surprisingly one of the richest and most productive ecosystems left in the world which is thanks to the seafloor suddenly dropping down a whopping two kilometres. This allows cold deep water, which holds masses of nutrients, to upwell and feed a wide range of species. The waters here are home to carbon-capturing kelp forests, glass sponges, a species previously thought to be globally extinct, as well as whales whose populations are still recovering from whaling in the last century. As Canada sees its northern ports used more for wood pellet exportation and liquid natural gas shipments, this designation could not have come sooner. Already, salmon and Dungeness crab have been affected by increased shipping traffic, with some of the indigenous in the area having to fly frozen salmon in from Alaska rather than catch their own. Positively however, this work has heavily included many of the First Nations who live in the area, allowing them input into hundreds of hours of meetings with the government and scientists. Their hope is that stricter environmental guidelines will allow them to have sustainable communities which can continue to live in the traditional way in the future. The wider goals of the scheme hope to reduce the growing impacts of shipping, such as noise pollution and strikes, as well as giving local species a safe place to recover and boost their populations. This will also allow genetic diversity to increase which is beneficial in the face of climate change. If one species has a wider range of genes creating a higher number of slightly different adaptations, then it is more likely that some will successfully survive in warmer, more acidic oceans. Eco-tourism is also hoped to benefit from the Great Bear Sea as surfing, kayaking, wildlife spotting and indigenous lead tours are all thought to thrive if the surrounding environment is thriving too.

Another existing MPA which has recently been expanded is the Macquarie Island Marine Park which was originally created in 1999. The newly extended park will be roughly the size of Germany and aims to protect the millions of penguins and seals which live on the island situated halfway between Australia and Antarctica. The island is currently home to species such as rockhopper penguins, elephant seals, fur seals and albatrosses, as well as a few scientists. Australia hopes that the tripling in size of this MPA will provide a large sanctuary for a range of species where they can adapt to climate change, protecting what they call a ‘remote wildlife wonderland’. The MPA will use zoning to control activities, with a sanctuary zone where the only humans allowed are scientists who are monitoring the activities of the penguin and albatross species, 50% of which are threatened with extinction. Some of the work has already included tagging seabirds with GPS trackers to see which parts of the ocean they use as feeding grounds which helps provide governments with the information they need to implement protected areas and regulate activities. In the habitat protection zone, some controlled activities are allowed, such as the continuation of a small Patagonian toothfish fishery.

Indonesia is also clamping down on fishing in some areas, particularly around the Maluku Islands. Last year, four MPAs were established in this area with another already created this year. Lying in the Coral Triangle, these islands have extreme levels of biodiversity and are renowned for their beauty. In each of the MPAs, a core zone has been designated which in total equates to 758 kilometres squared over all the marine parks. Here, no fishing or tourism is allowed at all, giving species the space and peace to feed, mate and raise young. Outside of these core zones, fishing is permitted but only by boats under 10 tonnes and only to traditional fishers using sustainable gear which aims to reduce overfishing and bycatch, giving fish populations a chance to bounce back.

In the UK, three brand new sites have recently been designated as MPAs with the highest possible level of protection. This means that no fishing, mining, laying of cables or any other destructive activity can take place. These areas include Allonby Bay in Cumbria which is home to a surprising amount of sea life, such as sponges, anemones, living reefs created by the honeycomb worm and thornback rays which come here to mate. On the opposite coast, another site has been created 35 miles from the shores of Northumberland. Here, the seabed is rich in rare creatures such as squat lobsters as well as a range of mammals like white-beaked dolphins. Finally, a patch of sea far off the coast of Sussex is now protected from all activity, aimed to preserve populations of dolphins, porpoise and seabird. Whilst these designations are fantastic news, they have left some conservationists feeling flat as originally five sites were proposed to become highly protected areas. The other two sites, in Lincolnshire and Northumberland, were scrapped as their impact on the fishing industry was thought to be too great. Whilst the three new protected sites will make a huge difference to the species living there, the overall progress the UK is making towards marine conservation is slow, with these new MPAs only totalling 0.5% of English seas. This means reaching their target of 30% by 2030 seems ever-more unrealistic. 

Ireland has the same goal of protecting 30% of its waters by 2030 and they too have made progress towards this in the last few months by establishing two new marine reserves which will take their total area of protected waters to 8.3%. The Southern Canyon site lies 280 kilometres south of Cork and Kerry and is home to cold water coral reefs as well as long-finned pilot whales and fish of all sizes in between. This is a special region as it contains the underwater Whittard Canyon which is comparable in size and depth to America’s world famous Grand Canyon. Due to the way the water flows throw this deep crevasse, high levels of nutrients are delivered to certain pockets of the ocean, allowing diverse ecosystems to spring up in unexpected places. These include rare slow-growing black corals which date back thousands of years as well as many at risk seabirds, including puffins and kittiwakes.

It seems that the world might finally be taking marine conservation seriously as marine protected areas become increasingly prevalent and increasingly large. However, these designations mean nothing unless the rules are enforced and all human activity in the area is closely monitored. It will be interesting to watch the change in these protected areas of ocean over the coming years, seeing whether species bounce back and flourish or if these great ideas simply turn into ‘paper parks’, protected on paper but left open to exploitation in reality.

By Neve McCracken-Heywood