marine reserve tagged posts

Earth’s oceans are home to some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, but warming temperatures are causing many marine animals, including coral, to die out. A new study into managing the effect climate change has on these organisms says that more international collaboration is needed to ensure the future of the more than 6,000 coral species.

“Coral reefs are an essential ecosystem on our planet,” said Andrea Grottoli, co-author of the study and a professor in earth sciences at the Ohio State University. “Coral reefs are really important for humans in that they provide protection to coastlines from erosion and storms, and they’re essential for certain services like tourism and other parts of the economy.”

The study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, advocates fo...

Researchers from the University of Plymouth have contributed to a new book addressing some of the most pressing challenges in marine conservation. Senior Research Fellow Dr. Emma Sheehan and Research Assistant Tom Mullier are among those to share their expertise in “Marine Protected Areas: Science, Policy and Management,” published by Elsevier.

Working alongside Dr. Jean-Luc Solandt from the Marine Conservation Society, and Dr. Sophie Elliott, from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, they contributed a chapter recommending an approach to Marine Protected Areas (MPA) management which isn’t only limited to protecting vulnerable areas of seabed within the UK’s vast network of MPAs.

Their paper outlines the legal tools the UK already has to protect the seabed from damaging activi...

In a remote spot in the South Atlantic, roughly 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the coast of West Africa, lies Ascension Island, one of the U.K.’s Overseas Territories. In January 2016, the British government announced plans made by Ascension’s elected governing body to protect the island’s biodiverse waters with a marine reserve spanning 230,000 square kilometers (90,000 square miles), an area almost as big as the U.K. itself. Fishing is prohibited in half this area and closely regulated in the other half.

On March 14, however, the U.K...

This week, Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet signed a decree allowing the creation of the Network of National Parks of Patagonia and the protection of marine areas in different areas of the South American country, in a move to boost her legacy two weeks before leaving power.

The marine areas contemplate the areas of the Juan Fernández Archipelago, Diego Ramírez Islands, Rapa Nui, Seno Almirantazgo and Tortel, totaling eight marine parks and six coastal marine areas of multiple, reaching 42.4 percent.

In all, protections added during her four-year term cover some 1.3 million square kilometers (509,000 square miles) of ocean.

The Rapa Nui area alone accounts for some 720,000 square kilometers home to at least 142 species of marine life found nowhere else, of which 27 are threatened or ...