fbpixel MPA Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Mission Blue

Blog Archives
Announcing the 2022 Ocean Lovers Festival at the Sydney Coast Hope Spot

By Noah Ritchie
2019 marked the congruent launch of the Sydney Coast Hope Spot and Ocean Lovers Festival in New South Wales, Australia. The festival is a 4-day event that includes live entertainment, art, technology, science, and other avenues to show the myriad ways ocean lovers can make a difference. Although the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic restricted the festival in 2020 and postponed their expected return this fall, the festival is looking to make an exuberant comeback this coming March of 2022!
What is Ocean Lovers Festival and how did it start?
Festival founder Anita Kolni says this idea started with her considering “how to come up with a way to share hope and solutions for the ocean in a time where people feel a lot of despair.”…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Behind the Scenes: The Azores Hope Spot Summit

Header image by Nuno Sá
By: Shannon McIntyre Rake, Hope Spots Program Manager

My name is Shannon McIntyre Rake and I am the Hope Spots Program Manager for Mission Blue. As many readers of this blog will already know, Hope Spots are special places in the ocean where Mission Blue works with local champions to promote the creation and enforcement of marine protected areas. The Azores is one such Hope Spot and that’s where this story starts, as we arrived there to meet the local champions and get an update on their conservation efforts. The trip would turn out to be unforgettable with the President of the Azores announcing an expansion of the Azorean marine protected area, as well as the opportunity to witness first-hand the cutting edge of local marine science efforts.…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Panama Achieves 30×30 Ocean Protection Goals in Newly Expanded Cordillera de Coiba Marine Protected Area

Header image by Max Bello.
Spanish translation can be read at the bottom of the page.
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA (June 8th, 2021) –
On June 8th, 2021, Laurentino Cortizo, President of Panama and Milciades Concepción, Minister of Environment signed the decree that protects the Coiba Ridge, a move that will triple the Cordillera de Coiba marine protected area. With this act, Panama is set to be ahead of the 30% by 2030 goals (30×30) and become a true Blue Leader – a country that officially “highly and fully” protects 30% or more of its oceans. Panama will finalize the management plan to address the regulation of the new expanded MPA by the fall. 
 

 
Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder of Mission Blue, says, “Congratulations to President Laurentino Cortizo and the country of Panama for protecting this special part of the blue planet.…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Photo of the Day, sylvia earle, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Environmental Groups Urge Costa Rica and Ecuador to Create World’s First Bilateral Marine Protected Area

Featured image by Nonie Silver
ECUADOR, AUGUST 28TH, 2020

Environmental groups Mission Blue and Turtle Island Restoration Network called on the Ministers of Environment of Costa Rica and Ecuador today to move forward in creating one of the world’s first marine protected areas connecting the UNESCO biosphere reserves of two countries.
The letter urges that Costa Rica and Ecuador act quickly to create the Cocos-Galapagos Swimway, a 240,000 square-kilometer underwater highway that connects the National Parks of two sovereign nations — Costa Rica’s Cocos Island National Park with Ecuador’s Galapagos Marine Reserve — both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Scientific research in the Eastern Tropical Pacific conducted by a network of organizations known as MigraMar revealed endangered and threatened marine species like whale sharks, green sea turtles, leatherback sea turtles, silky sharks, and scalloped hammerhead sharks use this swimway to migrate between the marine reserves.…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Little Cayman Hope Spot: Celebrating a Brilliant Example of Successful Marine Conservation

Cayman Islands (June 6th , 2020)

The smallest of the Cayman Islands is home to fewer than 200 people – and yet at roughly 10 miles long by one mile wide, Little Cayman has become known as a magnificent oasis in the Caribbean. Small but mighty, the island shines as a flourishing example of what protection for marine ecosystems can look like when conservation is prioritized. The island’s colorful reefs are considered some of the healthiest in the Caribbean and support a rich ecosystem bursting with creatures like sea turtles, sharks, stingrays and a rainbow of corals. Behind the scenes of the conservation of Little Cayman’s brilliant marine life is Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI). Their resilience, restoration and assisted evolution research efforts examine the features that enable corals to persist through time, despite changing conditions.…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
A Triumph for the Sea: The Nusa Penida Marine Protected Area Declared New Mission Blue Hope Spot

NUSA PENIDA, INDONESIA (May 22, 2020)

The rugged islands and magnificent underwater landscapes of the Nusa Penida Marine Protected Area (MPA) are a reef lover’s paradise, brimming with creatures like manta rays, sunfish and turtles. Located just a short trip from Bali, the Nusa Penida MPA covers an area of 20,057 hectares surrounding Nusa Penida and two smaller neighboring islands, Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Lembongan. For centuries, the people of the Penida Islands have lived in harmony with these waters. In 2008, the area was identified as a site with a high livelihood dependency on marine resources and was recognized as a critical area for marine biodiversity through a rapid ecological assessment. This report translates to reality for many of the 48,000 members of traditional villages who, on a day-to-day basis, rely on the sea for their livelihoods.…

Posted in .Homepage, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Featured, mission blue, Partner Stories, Uncategorized |

Leave a comment
Tavarua Island Hope Spot Announced in Support of Establishing a Marine Protected Area

Tavarua Island, Fiji, (November 13th, 2018) – The famous Fijian island known for its unique heart shape, lush flora and world-famous surfing has been passionately and meticulously cared for by residents, local communities (natives), and visitors alike, in an effort to preserve and rehabilitate its reef ecosystem. Throughout the last six years, the island has culturally— but not officially— upheld a “Tabu”, an absolute ban on fishing in the reef system surrounding the island put in place by native villages that own the fishing rights to the reefs. The people of Tavarua Island are hoping to officially obtain protections to preserve its unique habitats, species, and ecological processes by establishing the island as a Marine Protected Area. International non-profit Mission Blue has declared Tavarua Island a Hope Spot in support of the Fijian Government’s goals of protecting the reef systems, and allowing for the continuance of successful coral reef ecotourism and research for generations to come.…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue |

Leave a comment
Patagonia: A Land of Wonder, A Sea of Hope

We’re proud to bring you this guest blog post from Sebastian Nicholls.

“WE’RE TALKING ABOUT TERRAFORMING MARS WHILE WE MARS-IFY EARTH”
–Sylvia Earle
Imagine a land, at the tip of a continent, where the rugged coastline cuts into the ocean like a curved dagger, and the whales sing a different tongue. A land whose ferocious natives resisted invasion after invasion attempted by Europeans, but for a brief hiatus accepted a French lawyer and adventurer as their king. This land of myth and adventure, where Sir Francis Drake reported seeing giants, caught the attention of even the worldliest travelers of old. Darwin, upon landing there in December of 1833, wrote “The first landing in any new country is very interesting, and especially when, as in this case, the whole aspect bears the stamp of a marked and individual character.”…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue |

Leave a comment
Mission Blue Names Newest Hope Spot off Lesbos Island in Greece

Lesbos is an historical Greek Island, home to important ancient personalities like poet Sappho, a way-station between the Aegean and Black Seas, as well as a modern crossroad used by migratory birds and a focal point of the European humanitarian crisis. On the north coast of Lesbos in the waters off the village of Petra, lies a marine area called Avlaki that boasts magnificent assemblages of aquatic birds, marine mammals and vibrant reefs in an impressive volcanic environment. As in most of the Aegean, fishing and other human impacts over the centuries have degraded the marine environment. Yet, the area still shimmers with life and attracts eco-tourists from around the globe. In concert with the Our Ocean Conference gathering happening now in nearby Malta, Mission Blue is thrilled to announce our newest Hope Spot at Avlaki, Lesbos Island, Greece!…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue, Uncategorized |

1 Comment
Hope Spots: An Actionable Plan to Save the Ocean

The immense problems facing the ocean often leave us feeling powerless. But what if there was a concrete, actionable strategy to nurse the ocean back to health? Dr. Sylvia Earle argues that there is. As a result, Mission Blue and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are opening up nominations for ‘Hope Spots‘ – marine areas in a network targeted for enhanced protection that are critical to the health of the ocean.
Hope Spots are areas in the ocean recognized by scientists for having unique ecological attributes that make them especially deserving of designation as marine protected areas. They may have an exceptional abundance and diversity of species such as the Coral Triangle Hope Spot in the Indo-Pacific. Or perhaps they have an ecosystem essential to marine life migration such as the Sargasso Sea Hope Spot in the Atlantic Ocean.…

Posted in .Homepage, Featured, mission blue |

3 Comments