Good news for a Friday: new protection for the marine environment

Hot on the heels of Wednesday's successful and hugely enjoyable launch of State of Nature 2016, the UK Government gave us a reason to be cheerful.  Here, Jonathan Hall, the RSPB's Head of Overseas Territories, explains...

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Yesterday was an absolutely massive day for the UK's marine environment. The UK Government and four UK Overseas Territory governments jointly announced new protections for an astonishing 2.2 million km2 of rich ocean waters. This is by far and away the largest British site protection ever made. And it means that over the course of this decade, the Territories and UK Government are on track to collectively protect at least 4 million square kilometres of ocean- an area larger than India. This is going to mean that the UK makes a massive contribution towards the UN’s global Sustainable Development Goal 14 to protect 10% of the world’s oceans by 2020.

Fabulous image of Tristan shark by Sue Scott

There were four major announcements yesterday, representing far-sighted communities in four different Territories who are all passionate about their conserving their wonderful marine environments, and who will now be provided with very welcome funding and technical support by the UK Government. To summarise:

 -        The Government of the Pitcairn Islands in the South Pacific has designated its entire 836,000km2 marine zone as a fully-protected marine reserve, closed to all commercial fishing and extractive activity (bar continued personal fishing by the Pitcairn islanders). This vast archipelago includes Henderson Island, a UK World Heritage Site ringed by beautiful coral reefs, and holds the record for some of the clearest waters in the world. Over 1,200 marine species have been recorded around Pitcairn, including breeding humpback whales and endangered turtles.

-        At least 220,000km2 around Ascension Island in the tropical South Atlantic will be designated a fully-protected marine reserve by 2019. This will be the first large-scale no-take zone anywhere in the Atlantic. The RSPB has been partnering with the Ascension Island Government for almost 20 years, undertaking a seabird restoration over ten years ago and today working with Ascension and other supportive NGOs from the Great British Oceans coalition to assist in marine protection. These are rich waters, famed for record-breakingly huge marlin, the second largest green turtle nesting site in the Atlantic, threatened tuna and one of the most important tropical seabird breeding sites in the world.

-        The St Helena Government meanwhile yesterday designated its entire 440,000km2 South Atlantic marine zone as a sustainable use marine protected area. This important step means that certain destructive fishing methods such as bottom-trawling, gill-nets and purse-seining will now be banned in their waters entirely (traditional St Helenian technique was to use ‘pole and line’ fishing only). St Helena’s waters are currently suspected of being an area where whale sharks breed. Whilst still not definite, this is the closest that anyone has got to identifying where these beautiful giant fish, the largest in the world, actually breed.

-        The wonderful 270-person community on Tristan da Cunha will lead a science-based process, supported by the RSPB, to establish a protection regime for their extremely rich 754,000km2 zone by 2020. The community are incredibly proud of their marine environment, and currently obtain the majority of their income from their vital sustainability-certified lobster fishery. Tristan da Cunha’s seas are filled with penguins, whales, dolphins, albatrosses and sharks, whilst the offshore UK World Heritage Site of Gough Island is described as ‘arguably the most important seabird island in the world’.

And to make all this happen, the FCO announced £20million of new funding to help monitor, manage, design and deliver all this. All this enormous progress has required great local leadership, UK Government support, backbencher effort, and tireless work alongside our five excellent NGO partners in the Great British Oceans coalition (www.greatbritishoceans.org). We’re now looking forward to continuing working with all concerned to make this world-leading contribution to ocean conservation a reality, giving penguins, sharks, turtles and whales a home in our diverse waters around the globe.