Palau Protects 80% of its Waters: Ocean Corridors Next?

Palau protects 80% of its water with a new massive reserve in Western Pacific

Palau just created a massive Marine Protected Area in the Western Pacific. The small Nation committed to the Conservation and Management of Global Oceans with the new reserve which spans over 80% of its waters. While Global Marine Protected Areas MPAs continue to rise meeting the goal of protecting over 20% of global oceans the next standing challenge in the sector seems to lead to ocean biological corridors.

Land biological corridors are already well established as functional and essential elements of conservation and management in land environments and are in place and functioning through the globe. However, biological ocean corridors are scarce despite being required.

On October 28 National Geographic reported on the creation of the new reserve by Palau. A team of Pristine Seas of National Geographic which has already been working in Palau for long years applauded the creation of the new reserve. The biodiversity of Palau is remarkably amazing.

“The president of Palau signed legislation Wednesday designating a reserve that's about 500,000 square kilometers in size. This makes it one of the five largest fully protected marine areas in the World,” National Geographic stated.

The reserve now declares 80% of Palau's water off limits from any extractive activities, including fishing and mining. The remaining 20 percent would remain open to fishing by locals and a limited number of small commercial operations.

Washington Post spinned the announcement of the reserve made by Palau into a wider global perspective in a report published in the Energy and Environment section on October 23. “More of the planet was protected in 2015 than ever. Few noticed because it was underwater,” Washington Post Bold Headline read.

Washington Post explained that the reserve of Palau now stands as the sixth largest oceanic protected area. Over one thousand of ocean species and 700 coral species are protected now in these Pacific Ocean waters.

“When you think about it from the perspective of the planet, the last 12 or 13 months, there’s been more of the planet protected than at any time in our history,” said Matt Rand, Pew’s Global Ocean Legacy project director.

Palau´s new reserve joins the list of the recent massive ocean reserves created which include the Pitcairn Island of UK, the New Zealand’s Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary. Chile’s Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park and proposed Easter Island reserve as well as the Pacific Remote Islands National Marine Monument of the US which includes fully protected areas around Wake Atoll, Johnston Atoll, and Jarvis Island.

Nations efforts to created protected areas are welcomed globally but oceanographers are aware that MPAs can not act efficiently as “isolated islands” surrounded by vast areas of unprotected oceans. Most of the MPAs which are now operational are home to migratory species which are key to the food webs and their ocean waters are rich in nutrients and lowbase food web producers plankton as well as other microorganisms. These areas also home to rich oceanic currents and a complex geological ocean floor. All these elements, species, currents, ocean floors and others are in fact part of a wider global system.

Migratory species use currents to travel from one remote area to another sometimes crossing more than one ocean in its full length. Currents and geological topography such as the Global Trench System also link remote protected areas. The need for ocean corridors is under this perspective undeniable.

One of the most studied and documented example and case for ocean corridor is that which speaks of the connection between Cocos Island in Costa Rica and Galapagos Island in Ecuador. Both areas are under separate but strict protection and flourish but are distanced by long miles of international ocean waters where fishing extractive activities are relentless. Sharks, hammerhead sharks and other numerous migratory species are known to travel from Cocos Island to Galapagos. Numerous studies have attempted to create an oceanic corridor to protect the resources by tagging migratory species on their recurrent migration pathways from Cocos Island to Galapagos and back. The Galapagos-Cocos Island is but one example, natural ocean corridors occur throughout the globe despite being pòlicitically not-recognized and to the date under little or no protection.

Washington Post revealed that “1.5 million square miles of ocean have been fully protected since 2014”. This accounts according to the media to 62 % of the total fully protected areas that exist in our Planet today.

Back in the small island of Palau Enric Sala -National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence and head of the Pristine Seas project, said that "Palau has really blown it out of the water."

The country "is one of the places with the highest marine biodiversity on the planet," he assured. Pristine Seas of National Geographic helped evaluate the effectiveness of smaller, traditional marine reserves in Palau.

The country's waters are home to over 1,300 species of fish, about 700 species of hard and soft corals and marine lakes that host hordes of non-stinging jellyfish.

“A marine sanctuary which houses thousands of fish species, translucent waters and breath-taking dive and snorkel locations, will remain preserved after a new law was passed in the Archipelago,” the Daily Mail picked up the news.

“Some fish travel outside these areas and can be caught...,” the Washington Post ended it.

Ocean Life News in Brief

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