Help protect the oceans - name marine reserves and win

Please note that this competition has now closed. Winners were announced on 6 June 2008. A big thank you to all entrants for their creative and inspiring suggestions.

 

The Pacific Ocean covers a vast area and surrounds over 20 countries.

Between many of these Pacific Island countries - Papua New Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia and the Cook Islands – lie three large un-named areas of international waters that belong to everyone.

Rampant overfishing

Since no country governs these areas, they are being overfished and provide safe havens for illegal pirate fishing vessels.

These areas include biologically rich undersea mountains and provide a home to endangered leatherback turtles.

They also support one of the world’s last remaining healthy tuna fisheries, which is the Pacific’s greatest resource.

However, this great resource is being stolen with little benefit to the Pacific nations.

To protect these regions from overfishing, Greenpeace is working hard to create marine reserves in these areas so no fishing fleets can fish there.