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Important Sea Turtle Breeding and Foraging Grounds Throughout the Pearl Islands Archipelago in Panama Recognized as a Hope Spot

Featured image by Eduardo Estrada

(PEARL ISLANDS, GULF OF PANAMA) – 
El Archipelago de las Perlas, or the Pearl Islands Archipelago, is a collection of more than 200 islands and islets and 3,188 beaches, located in the Gulf of Panama, approximately 48 kilometers off its Pacific Coast. This archipelago holds an impressive marine life richness and diversity that has yet to be fully discovered, studied, and recognized for its importance within the Latin American region and around the globe. It provides, currently or historically, a breeding ground for four sea turtle species: hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), leatherback sea turtles (Dermochleys coriacea), and olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea), and it is a nursery ground for hammerhead sharks (Sphyrnidae) and humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) to breed and raise their young. …

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Panama Achieves Nearly 60% Ocean Protection with Newly Expanded Banco Volcán Marine Protected Area

Featured image: Whale shark by Cristina Mittermeier

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA (March 2, 2023) –
On March 2, 2023, during the opening ceremony of the 2023 Our Ocean Conference, Laurentino Cortizo, President of Panama, and Milciades Concepción, Minister of Environment, signed the decree to substantially expand the limits of the Banco Volcán Area of Managed Resources (Banco Volcán AMR) to further protect and steward important marine ecosystems, endangered flora and fauna, and important fishing resources found within Panama’s territorial waters in the Caribbean Sea. The expansion increases the size of the Banco Volcán AMR from approximately 14,200 sq km to over 90,000 sq km, with at least half of the total zone designated as a fully protected marine area where no extractive or environmentally damaging activities will be allowed.…

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East Antarctic Hope Spot Highlights Ecological Importance and Need for Comprehensive Protection of Marine Life

Featured image: John Weller
(EAST ANTARCTICA) – 
The East Antarctic region is distinctive and dynamic, yet less well understood than other regions of the Antarctic. The remote, extreme, cold areas of East Antarctica remain largely untouched by human intervention. However, increased human activities and associated infrastructure could have long-lasting effects on the environment. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) is developing international campaigns to designate the East Antarctic marine protected area (MPA). The campaign focuses on building support for the designation by countries that are Members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). This plan includes raising the international profile of Antarctic conservation so that it remains a priority for decision-makers.
 
 
Mission Blue recognizes Claire Christian, Executive Director of ASOC, and Kimberly Aiken, Research and Policy Associate with ASOC as the Hope Spot Champions of the East Antarctic Hope Spot in recognition of their efforts to encourage continued international collaboration to protect Antarctica.…

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Dutch King and Queen to Visit Mission Blue’s Newest Hope Spot: Saba and the Saba Bank

Header image: Aerial shot of Saba Island (c) Daniel Norwood
(SABA MARINE PARK, SABA DUTCH CARIBBEAN) –
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands will be on Saba Island on February 9th, 2023, to learn more about the innovative urchin restoration project at the Saba Research Center. The new laboratory is located at the island’s Fort Bay harbor. The facility will be overseen by the Saba Conservation Foundation and is expected to attract visiting scientists to study Saba’s resilient marine life. The Saba Research Center will be the first marine lab in the Windward islands of the Dutch Caribbean where applied research can take place.
 
 
International marine conservation organization Mission Blue has declared Saba and the Saba Bank a Hope Spot in recognition of the ongoing efforts to ensure long-term sustainability and health for the island’s waters by many, including Hope Spot Champions Lynn Costenaro, Founding Director and Emily Malsack, Operational Director of the Sea & Learn Foundation.…

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Greater Skellig Coast Recognized as Ireland’s First Hope Spot

Image: Hope Spot Champions Lucy Hunt (right), Founder of SeaSynergy and Aoife O Mahony, Campaign Manager for Fair Seas Photo by Alan Landers
(THE SKELLIGS, IRELAND) –
In the southwestern waters off Ireland is Sceilg Mhichíl or The Skelligs, one of the most spectacular early medieval monastic sites in the world. The island stands out in the Atlantic, towering above waters with creatures like bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops), the elusive flapper skate (Dipturus batis) and stingrays (Dasyatis pastinaca). The Greater Skellig Coast stretches from Kenmare Bay in Co Kerry to Loop Head in Co Clare and covers an area of roughly 7,000 km2 of Irish coastal waters.
 
 
In the modern day, residents have connected with their blue backyard through a dolphin named Fungi, who for 38 years delighted locals with frequent sightings.…

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The Quest for Kelp and Diving with Dr. Sylvia Earle

Featured image: Salome (left) with Dr. Sylvia Earle inspecting kelp samples © Taylor Griffith
By Salome Buglass
To follow her research on the Galápagos kelp forests, follow Salome on Twitter @bugsalome and her research update on Experiment.

Kelps are giant, brown algae that look a lot like plants, but actually belong to the Protist Kingdom, so they are not even closely related. However, much like trees, kelp can form vast undersea canopies, called kelp forests, teeming with marine file, feeding, breeding and finding refuge there. Kelps are cold water species that need nutrients, light and a hard seafloor to latch on to with their holdfasts (a rootlike system). This is why kelp forests are almost exclusively found in higher, colder latitudes.…

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A Witness to Hope: Celebrating 25 years of the Galápagos Marine Reserve

Featured image: A female whale shark migrates past Darwin Island. Image © Dr. Alex Hearn
By Courtney Mattison
It’s difficult to think of a place more deserving of status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site than the Galápagos. With cold-water organisms like penguins and kelp living among tropical corals and endemic bullhead sharks, this “melting pot” of marine biodiversity is unparalleled. In 1998, the Ecuadorian Government safeguarded 138,000 square kilometers of ocean surrounding the Galápagos Islands Hope Spot through the creation of the Galápagos Marine Reserve. Nearly 25 years on, Mission Blue celebrates this great achievement alongside a team of researchers led by Mission Blue founder and National Geographic Society Explorer-at-Large Dr. Sylvia Earle and principal expedition investigator and Hope Spot Co-Champion, Professor Alex Hearn.…

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A Voice for the Ocean: Counting Forgotten Species in the Galápagos

Featured image: Galápagos horn shark © Avi Klapfer
By Courtney Mattison

Before humans ever made landfall in the Galápagos Archipelago in 1535, only 300 years before Darwin’s fateful voyage, whale sharks migrated through the northern islands among oceanic manta rays and schools of hammerheads while green sea turtles munched on algae growing between barnacles the size of tennis balls on the rocks below. Sea lions and fur seals sunbathed on shore, reclining among marine iguanas, crimson Sally Lightfoot crabs, frigates and blue-footed boobies. Despite the challenges of tourism, commercial fishing and climate change, the Galápagos of today looks surprisingly similar. It’s tempting to assume that these islands and surrounding waters are relatively pristine given their remote location and UNESCO World Heritage status, and in some ways they are.…

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Antarctica’s Ross Sea Hope Spot Recognized with New Champions and a Call for International Collaboration for Marine Protection

Antarctica’s Ross Sea represents the idyllic vision of Earth’s southernmost continent – boundless landscapes of ice glimmer under the sun and penguins stand tall on the edge of glacial cliffs. Under the waves, species like seals, whales and toothfish can be found, along with many species only found in the Ross Sea, and more yet to be described by science. 
 
 
Scientists believe that the Ross Sea is one of the last remaining undisturbed marine ecosystems in the world. In 2016, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) adopted the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area (MPA), making the region the world’s first large-scale, high seas MPA covering 2.09 million square kilometers. “This act showed the world that we can do remarkable things — reaffirming the value of cooperation, peace, science, and conservation in Antarctica”, describes Kimberly Aiken, Research and Policy Associate at the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC).…

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Dr. Sylvia Earle and Ecuadorian Minister of Environment, Gustavo Manrique, Descend More Than 700 Feet in Galápagos to Celebrate 25th Anniversary of Marine Reserve

Featured image: Clockwise from left: Ecuador’s Minister of Environment Gustavo Manrique, DeepSee submersible pilot Arik Amzaleg, Dr. Sylvia Earle © Taylor Griffith
By Courtney Mattison

Thousands of bubbles glitter upwards around the clear acrylic sphere as the DeepSee submersible descends into the turquoise abyss. Dark water below invites curiosity and anticipation as the pilot and two passengers perch quietly on their seats, gazing through the deepening shades of blue that surround them. Enveloped in darkness at 220 meters depth, Ecuador’s Minister of Environment, Gustavo Manrique, utters to his co-passenger, “Sylvia, this is like being in space!” to which Sylvia replies, “No, this is even better — because there’s life.” 
Most of the ocean and life within it exist in darkness. Mission Blue founder and National Geographic Society Explorer-at-Large Dr.…

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