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Ascension: Halfway to the Atlantic’s largest marine reserve

 

 
By Charles Clover, Executive Director, Blue Marine Foundation
 
 

On the morning of Sunday 3 January 2016, the world woke to the news that the British government was proposing to create a “marine reserve nearly the size of the United Kingdom” in the tropical Atlantic around the island of Ascension. It was a moment of triumph for all those who had campaigned so hard for this outcome. The proposed designation of half the waters around Ascension Island would be the largest fully protected marine reserve in the Atlantic Ocean. Yet it is important to understand that what has happened is, for now, just a closure of some but not all of Ascension’s waters to commercial fishing and that a great deal more remains to be done by both British and the US governments if the formal protection of this marine treasure is to succeed and, crucially, to be supported by the local people.…

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Dr. James Ketchum Talks Sharks in Gulf of California Hope Spot

Our latest expedition to the Gulf of California Hope Spot just concluded, and Dr. Sylvia Earle and her Mission Blue team brought back lots of wonderful stories! To kick things off, watch the video below of shark expert Dr. James Ketchum of Pelagios Kakunjá presenting his shark research to the group. Last year, Dr. Ketchum and others from Pelagios Kakunjá participated in an expedition from Cabo San Lucas to La Paz with Alucia Productions to assess the importance of marine protected areas (MPAs) for shark conservation around Cabo Pulmo and create a model for designing future MPAs. Protected as a no-take zone for the past 25 years, the Cabo Pulmo Marine Reserve is a prime example of a successful MPA that has seen a remarkable bounce-back in biodiversity and productivity since its establishment.…

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Restoring Coral Gardens in Fiji

Here is a word from our partners at Reef Explorer Fiji, Ltd. who are doing amazing work to replenish and maintain reefs along Fiji’s Coral Coast.

Coral reef ecosystems and the diversity and abundance of animals and plants they support have been an integral part of the way of life and survival of island communities since time immemorial. Though they cover only around one tenth of one percent of the surface area of the ocean, coral reefs are jewels of the tropical seas that sustain more than 25 percent of all known marine species. Globally, coral reefs contribute over US$375 billion each year in ecosystem services.
The coral reef ecosystem encompassed by the Fiji Islands is one of the most extensive in the world.…

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Dr. Sylvia Earle Announces First Hope Spot in Mediterranean

Mission Blue and Asociación Ondine Partner to Protect Balearic Islands

Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder and Chairman of the Sylvia Earle Alliance (S.E.A.) and Mission Blue, has named the Balearic Islands a Hope Spot—a special place worth safeguarding as a marine protected area for its importance to the health of the Mediterranean Sea.
The announcement came during Dr. Earle and the Mission Blue team’s visit to Mallorca from November 10-12 in collaboration with Asociación Ondine and with the support of Stefan and Irina Hearst. Dr. Earle gave a lecture outlining the main aspects of her Mission Blue Hope Spots initiative at the Hotel St. Regis Mardavall upon announcing the new Hope Spot. She said:
This is the first part of the Mediterranean that has been designated as a Hope Spot, so why not use this as a springboard—as evidence of what caring can yield—an idea worth spreading.…

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Mission Blue II Voyage: A Resounding Success in Calling for More Ocean Protection

Exploring over 1,500 miles of vibrant ocean in the South Pacific this past month, the Mission Blue II Voyage marked an important milestone for 21st century ocean conservation and underscored support at the highest levels for Hope Spots, Mission Blue’s flagship initiative. Aboard the 340-foot National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions Orion, world leading marine scientists, conservationists, policy makers, researchers, technologists and influencers traveled along the Pacific Equator from Papua New Guinea to the Solomon Islands and participated in an ocean symposium hosted and filmed by TED. Dr. Sylvia Earle, founder of Mission Blue, was as much a part of the onboard brainstorming as the underwater exploration that led to amazing finds like the ancient, oversized coral above.
In her TED filmed talk aboard the Mission Blue II Voyage, which will be made available at a later date, Dr.…

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Marine Protection in the Spotlight at Our Ocean Conference

By Courtney Mattison Hope was in the air during this week’s Our Ocean Conference in Valparaiso, Chile, where over 400 government leaders, researchers and ocean conservation advocates gathered for two days to make and support commitments to protect marine biodiversity. Seeking solutions to illegal fishing, marine plastic pollution, ocean acidification and climate change, Our Ocean 2015 focused on encouraging the use of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a tool to regulate harmful human activities that threaten ocean health.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet led the way in announcing the establishment of the Nazca-Desventuradas marine park—which will cover a surface area of more than 297,000 square kilometers (over 114,000 square miles) surrounding the San Ambrosio and San Felix islands—and a commitment to create a second marine protected area encompassing over 600,000 square kilometers around Easter Island.…

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Northern California National Marine Sanctuaries Double in Size

Mission Blue commends the tremendous efforts of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, which recently announced greatly expanded reach for ocean conservation in the coastal waters surrounding San Francisco, the home of Mission Blue headquarters. This near doubling in geographic protection comes at a time when the Obama administrator is pursuing a more aggressive ocean conservation agenda, most notably with massive tracts ocean set aside in the US Pacific to be off-limits to fishing, energy extraction and other activities.
Mission Blue and Dr. Sylvia Earle look forward to working with the National Marine Sanctuaries and NOAA in calling public attention to the positive impact the federal government is making on increasing the geographic area of Marine Protected Areas within US jurisdiction.…

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Ocean Protection Expands in Horn of Africa

Four new marine protected areas have been declared in the Republic of Djibouti
Mission Blue partner, KAI Marine, is happy to officially announce the exact positions of the marine protected areas (MPAs) of the Djibouti MPA Program of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Government of Djibouti. Since 2012, KAI Marine has been assisting UNDP and the Department of Land Management and Environment in the development of the MPA Program’s management plans and communication strategy.

These MPAs, situated at the gates between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in a region known as the Horn of Africa, safeguard a hotspot of biodiversity. Pristine coral reefs, mangroves, sea turtle nesting beaches and unique oceanographic features are home to many great pelagic species including the whale shark, whales, dolphins, sea turtles and sea birds.…

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Protection may be Imminent for Great British Oceans

By Courtney Mattison
Mission Blue has teamed up with a coalition of leading marine conservation organizations to urge the British Government to step up to its responsibility to safeguard the maritime zones of the UK’s overseas territories by creating three of the largest marine protected areas (MPAs) in the world. Through the Great British Oceans campaign, this alliance between 106 signatories including The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Greenpeace UK, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Marine Conservation Society, the Zoological Society of London, the Blue Marine Foundation, the Marine Reserves Coalition and National Geographic Society is gaining support for the UK to fund large-scale, full marine protection in the waters surrounding Ascension, Pitcairn and South Sandwich Islands.
The United Kingdom has jurisdiction over the fifth largest combined ocean area in the world – a collection of territories nearly 30 times the size of the UK itself.1 The three MPAs proposed around Ascension, Pitcairn and South Sandwich Islands would more than double the size of existing protected areas in the global ocean.2 Fully protecting these areas would mean shielding countless rare and threatened species including endemic seabirds, whales, turtles, penguins and corals from the enormous threats of overfishing, pollution and resource extraction.…

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Protecting Italy’s Underwater Treasure

By Mariasole Bianco, President of Worldrise (a new Mission Blue partner)
Cinque Terre is definitely one of the jewels in the crown of Italy. Riomaggiore, Manrola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso are five pastel-hued little towns along the northwest coast of Italy; so romantic, so iconically Italian, that it seems that they were made to grace picture postcards.
If you ask, everyone will tell you that the main attraction of Cinque Terre is the magnificent landscape representing the harmonious interaction between people and nature. This is undeniably true, as the landscape illustrates a traditional way of life that has existed for 1,000 years – when stone wall terraces were built to colonize the steep hills and high cliffs of this area overlooking the Mediterranean.…

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