Photograph: © SAF – Coastal Care
Excerpts;
Current marine protected areas (MPAs) leave almost three-quarters of ecologically and functionally important species unprotected, concludes a new performance assessment of the Finnish MPA network.
Published in Frontiers in Marine Science, the study finds the MPAs were designated with little knowledge of local marine biodiversity — and that increasing existing networks by just 1% in ecologically most relevant areas could double conservation of the most important species.
In addition to identifying areas of high conservation value, the methodology — which uses a unique new dataset of 140,000 samples — can also be used in ecosystem-based marine spatial planning and impact avoidance, including siting of wind energy infrastructure, aquaculture and other human activities…
Read Full Article; Science Daily (11-08-2018)
Largest Marine Protected Area in North America Created off Mexico; National Geographic (10-06-2017)
The Mexican government has announced the creation of a new marine reserve in the Pacific Ocean Thursday, the largest protected area of its kind in North America…
