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Marine reserves are “fenced off” areas that prohibit all extractive uses, such as fishing and mining, as well as disposal activities.
Marine reserves are vital to restoring the health of our rapidly declining oceans. They can help restore marine biodiversity and put endangered species and habitats on the road to recovery. Marine reserves provide a safe-haven for marine life and give them the freedom to spawn, mate, and feed without the pressures of capture or habitat loss.
According to scientific evidence from around the world, massive networks of marine reserves, protecting species and their habitats, may reverse the decline in global fisheries.
Inside the reserves, marine life increases in size and individuals live longer, grow larger and develop increased reproductive potential. Marine reserves could even benefit highly migratory species, such as sharks, tuna and billfish, if they are created in places where these species are currently highly vulnerable, such as nursery grounds, spawning sites or aggregation sites like undersea mountains - seamounts.
Studies of existing marine reserves around the world prove that these protected areas produce up to 200 times as many fish, which grow larger and older than those in unprotected waters, and help to restore depleted fish stocks.
One third of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is a true marine reserve with no fishing or mining allowed.
No marine reserves have yet been declared within Antarctic waters.
In the waters of many Pacific nations are tribal-based marine reserves, or ‘tabu’ areas. Right now Greenpeace is campaigning for the creation of the first marine reserves in international waters north-east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean.
Marine reserves are vital to restoring the health of our rapidly declining oceans. They can help restore marine biodiversity and put endangered species and habitats on the road to recovery. Marine reserves provide a safe-haven for marine life and give them the freedom to spawn, mate, and feed without the pressures of capture or habitat loss.
According to scientific evidence from around the world, massive networks of marine reserves, protecting species and their habitats, may reverse the decline in global fisheries.
Inside the reserves, marine life increases in size and individuals live longer, grow larger and develop increased reproductive potential. Marine reserves could even benefit highly migratory species, such as sharks, tuna and billfish, if they are created in places where these species are currently highly vulnerable, such as nursery grounds, spawning sites or aggregation sites like undersea mountains - seamounts.
Studies of existing marine reserves around the world prove that these protected areas produce up to 200 times as many fish, which grow larger and older than those in unprotected waters, and help to restore depleted fish stocks.
One third of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is a true marine reserve with no fishing or mining allowed.
No marine reserves have yet been declared within Antarctic waters.
In the waters of many Pacific nations are tribal-based marine reserves, or ‘tabu’ areas. Right now Greenpeace is campaigning for the creation of the first marine reserves in international waters north-east of Australia in the Pacific Ocean.
More information
DOWNLOAD: the Roadmap to Recovery report.
WATCH: video about Kadavu island, which could become the first true marine reserve in the Pacific.
