The tiny Pacific island nation of Palau created a vast marine sanctuary the size of Spain on Wednesday, banning fishing across the bulk of its waters to preserve the ocean for future generations. At 500,000 square kilometres the new sanctuary is one of the largest in the world and covers an underwater wonderland containing 1,300 species of fish and 700 types of coral.
Palau President Tommy Remengesau said the sanctuary, comprising 80 percent of the nation's maritime territory, would allow the ocean to heal after decades of industrialised fishing which has driven some species to the brink of extinction. "A small island nation can have a big impact on the ocean," he said ahead of a ceremony to officially sign off on the reserve. "Island communities have been among the hardest hit by the threats facing the ocean. Creating this sanctuary is a bold move that the people of Palau recognise as essential to our survival."
The archipelago, part of the larger island group of Micronesia in the west Pacific, has a population of just 18,000. The sanctuary will be phased in over five years, eventually leaving only a relatively small area of Palau's waters open to fishing by locals but not the foreign trawlers which dominate the Pacific industry. The no-fishing plan prioritises tourism -- which contributes about US$160 million or 50 percent of gross domestic product annually -- over the tuna industry, which contributes around US$5.5 million a year. Palau created the world's first shark sanctuary in 2009 and about one-third of countries have now followed suit, changing attitudes to the predator and helping curb demand for shark fin soup. Conservation efforts are underway in the Pacific to create a network of marine parks across the region to ensure one of the world's last pristine ocean ecosystems is managed sustainably. In 2012 the Cook Islands unveiled a 1,065 million square kilometre marine park while Kiribati and Tokelau have also declared huge protected zones. New Zealand announced plans last month to create a marine sanctuary the size of France by 2016.
International efforts to create two vast marine sanctuaries to protect the pristine wilderness of Antarctica failed for the fifth time, but delegates said China's support for one reserve and Russia's commitment to further talks gave them hope. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) meeting closed last week with no agreement on the two proposed areas, designed to protect species including whales and penguins.
Officials said China had at the last minute indicated it would support one of these reserves in the Ross Sea, which is known as the "Last Ocean" because it is considered the only intact marine ecosystem left on Earth. But it was ultimately blocked by Russia, which along with China also stopped a proposal for a marine protected zone in the East Antarctic coastal region. Both proposals have now been shot down five times at the annual CCAMLR meetings, which require consensus from all 24 members countries and the European Union to progress. But delegates welcomed China's support for the Ross Sea sanctuary, which it had blocked in previous years, saying it made a future deal more likely.
The US and New Zealand-backed Ross Sea proposal was this year enlarged to more than 1.5 million square kilometres although the overall no fishing zone was slightly reduced to about 1.1 million square kilometres. The second proposed protected area, the Australia, France and EU-backed East Antarctica sanctuary, is for a one million square kilometre zone over four areas where some fishing and research would be allowed, with environmental restrictions. Both reserve proposals have been on the table with CCAMLR -- a treaty tasked with overseeing conservation and sustainable exploitation of the Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean -- since 2011. Each has been modified as members have debated how to manage the region, which environmentalists say is home to more than 10,000 unique species, including seals and colossal squid. It is also critical for scientific research. AFP
