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Israel’s First Hope Spot Recognized at Palmahim Slide off the Coast of Tel-Aviv

Featured image: Bioluminescent crab (c) University of Haifa and Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research
MEDITERRANEAN SEA, ISRAEL 

The Palmahim Slide is an area of deep-sea waters that can be found 20-50 km off the coast of Tel-Aviv. The Slide is a bathymetric irregularity creating a distinct geological formation that is 15m wide, starting at depths of -100m and reaching up to -1,200m. Over the last decade, a national and international deep-sea research collaboration led by Dr. Yizhaq Makovsky of the University of Haifa and Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research have discovered two rare and important habitats – methane seeps and deep-water coral gardens – which had not been seen before in the south-eastern Mediterranean Sea. The site was recently documented as a mass reproduction hotspot for deep sea sharks.…

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Uruguay Announces New Marine Protected Area in the Whale and Dolphin Sanctuary of Uruguay Hope Spot

Featured image: Eduardo Sorensen

Today at the 2022 UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Adrián Peña, Minister of Environment of Uruguay, announced that the country has committed to protecting 10% of its EEZ, or Exclusive Economic Zone with a new marine protected area (MPA) encompassing 12,000 km2 with 60% as a no-take zone. This plan is part of the announced “roadmap” called Uruguay Azul 2030, in which Uruguay commits to expand its total protected areas to 30% by 2030. Previously, just 0.7% of the country’s EEZ has been formally protected. 
 

 
This new MPA will not touch the coastline; at the furthest point from the coast, the boundary begins at 64.3 km, and at the nearest point, the boundary begins at 16 km off the coast.…

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The Dominican Republic Announces Commitment to Protect 30% of its Ocean Territory by 2030

The Dominican Republic is making good on its promise to protect thirty percent of its territory by 2030. As part of the 30×30 global movement, the Dominican Republic seeks to play an important role in fighting the loss of biodiversity and to shield against climate change by permanently protecting nearly a third of its expansive oceanic territory.
The Dominican Republic announced this proposed expansion during the United Nations Ocean Conference held jointly by Portugal and Kenya in Lisbon. The Dominican Republic’s commitment to the ocean will stand as an example of leadership heard around the globe.  
Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder of Mission Blue and a leading global figure in ocean conservation calls the move, “inspiring and hopeful.” She says, “the Dominican Republic is setting an outstanding example that I hope many others will follow.”…

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New Champion of the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone Hope Spot Urges Comprehensive Protection of the High Seas

Featured image: Deepsea lizard fish (Bathysaurus ferox) found in the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone (c) David Shale 
HIGH SEAS, MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE

Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone (CGFZ) is part of the high seas and the deep sea often referred to as a “living library”, brimming with understudied and unobserved creatures. The fracture zone is of great scientific interest and a unique geological feature. In 2018, it was identified as the area in the deep North Atlantic with the highest potential for climate change resilience (Johnson et al., 2018). While only being discovered in 1966, the fracture zone has since been recognized as part of the OSPAR Convention’s High Seas MPA (marine protected area) network, comprising two MPAs that together protect elements of the seafloor and the water column.…

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A Yellow Submarine Explores the Depths of the Panamanian Pacific

Six scientists from Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador spent two weeks exploring the recently expanded Cordillera de Coiba marine protected area, an unknown region to science. This is what they saw.

By: Leila Nilipour
 

 
After almost 30 hours of sailing from Panama City, the M/V Argo, with six researchers and two science communicators on board, stopped near the fifth parallel: a few meters from the line that divides Panamanian and Colombian waters. A long underwater mountain range shared by both countries rose from the sea floor, one of its peaks directly below the ship, at a depth of about 130 meters. The Colombian side of the seamount had been explored before, but the Panamanian side had not. The scientific expedition led by marine ecologist Héctor Guzmán from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and MigraMar, and with researchers from Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama, would be the first to do so.…

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New Hope Spot Champions for the Costa Rica Thermal Dome Emphasize Need for Sustainable High Seas Management

Featured image: Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) (c) Fundación MarViva
Costa Rica, Tropical Pacific Ocean

The Costa Rica Thermal Dome (CRTD) is considered a deeply important place in the high seas of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean (ETPO). Here, strong upwelling events provide high concentrations of nutrients for creatures like blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini), Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), and giant manta rays (Mobula birostris). (Broenkow, 1965; Jiménez, 2016). Megafauna like sea turtles rely on these waters to migrate and mate. As the Dome is located in the high seas, no one country holds claim to it – nor can protect the threatened marine life within. However, the new Hope Spot Champions have bigger plans for the Dome.…

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First Hope Spot in New York Celebrated at Shinnecock Bay, Long Island

Photo: Dr. Ellen Pikitch, Hope Spot Champion, tagging flounder (c) Kristy Leibowitz
LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK

Approximately 122 km east of Manhattan lies Shinnecock Bay, a hidden gem of biodiversity that has been a key stronghold for imperiled species both in New York State and globally. The bay covers an area of 40 km2 and consists of nine thousand acres of open water, salt marshes, intertidal flats, and seagrass beds. A remarkable variety of birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, invertebrates and other wildlife live and migrate through Shinnecock Bay. 
 
 
International marine conservation nonprofit Mission Blue has named Shinnecock Bay a Hope Spot in recognition of its substantial ecological, scenic, touristic, economic, spiritual and cultural significance. The Hope Spot designation is also in recognition Shinnecock Bay Restoration Program (ShiRP) implemented ten years ago by Stony Brook University.…

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Kahalu‘u Bay on Hawai‘i’s West Coast Recognized as a Mission Blue Hope Spot

Featured image (c) Bo Pardau
KONA, HAWAI‘I (May 26th, 2022)

On the west coast of the island of Hawai‘i is Kahalu‘u Bay, also known as ‘āina lei ali‘i, lands that adorn the chiefs. It is a wahi pana, a sacred, celebrated, and storied place abundant with cultural and ecological treasures. 
Cindi Punihaole, director of The Kohala Center’s Kahalu‘u Bay Education Center (TKC-KBEC) and Dr. Christine Zalewski, president of Dear Ocean, are working to preserve Kahalu‘u Bay for generations to come. Punihaole describes how her native Hawaiian upbringing shapes her perspective and approach to conservation at Kahalu‘u Bay. “We were taught that taking care of the ʻāina, the land and sea, is your survival. It’s second nature for me to look at what gives us life.”
 
 
International marine conservation nonprofit Mission Blue has named Kahalu‘u Bay a Hope Spot and Punihaole and Zalewski as the Hope Spot Champions.…

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The First Scientific Expedition to Panama’s Unexplored Cordillera de Coiba Hope Spot Sets Sail

Scientists, students and communicators from Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Spain will spend twelve days on the high seas exploring the biodiversity of Panama’s Cordillera de Coiba seamounts. 
Panama, April 27th, 2022

Last year, Panama expanded the Cordillera de Coiba marine protected area from 17,223.52 km2 to 67,908.98 km2 in a move that brought the country to meet its 30×30 conservation goals. Now, an international scientific expedition made up of researchers and students from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), MigraMar, the International Maritime University of Panama (UMIP), the University of Costa Rica and the Ministry of the Environment will set sail on the first mission to explore the seamounts of this protected area. 
 
 
The scientists will conduct daily dives to depths of up to 450 meters, using a manned submarine, and deploy baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVs) several times a day to document the important biodiversity inhabiting the seamounts in the Cordillera de Coiba, located over 60 miles south of the Coiba National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.…

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New Management Plan Approved for the Cordillera de Coiba Hope Spot in Panama

Spanish version below.
Héctor Guzmán, marine conservation biologist of the Smithsonian Institution, worked on the development and drafting of the plan for the management of the expanded protected area. He is also the Champion of the Cordillera de Coiba Hope Spot. To learn more about this Hope Spot, click here.

In June 2021, Panama expanded the Cordillera de Coiba Marine Protected Area from approximately 17,000 to 68,000 square kilometers, accomplishing the goal of the Global Biodiversity Framework’s “30×30 Initiative” to protect 30% of the marine areas of the country by 2030. Less than a year later, in February 2022, Héctor Guzmán, a marine biologist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), together with a multidisciplinary consulting team, delivered the final management plan for the expanded protected area that was recently approved by the Ministry of the Environment of Panama, according to resolution number DM-No.…

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