MPA News

MPA News asked two people with an interest in global MPA statistics for their thoughts on what counts as an MPA. Specifically, we gave a short list of what might be considered borderline MPAs to: Chris Yesson of the Institute of Zoology in the UK, who helped develop the global MPA coverage calculation for the Marine Reserves Coalition, and Lance Morgan of the Marine Conservation Institute, who has led development of MPAtlas.org …and asked them which ones they would consider to be actual MPAs. Because both of their projects rely on the World Database on Protected Areas as their primary…

The following is the opening section of the new book The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea, by Callum Roberts. It is reprinted here by OpenChannels with permission from Viking Press. 

The water felt chilly as I waded out to fetch the battered skiff from its mooring. It slid easily over the glassy lagoon to the beach, where Julie waited with our diving gear. We had been married a month, and in lieu of a honeymoon I had persuaded her to accept two months of fieldwork studying fish behavior on this remote patch of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It was June 1987, winter in Australia and summer back home. Two herons picked their way along the shoreline looking for breakfast. They flapped off as the outboard engine coughed to life, and we set course for a spot a mile away, across a maze of coral so complex that it would have baffled the most capable navigator.

We anchored on a rubble ridge that separated the lagoon from the open sea. This was our first ocean dive here, and the thrill of expectation was tempered by a frisson of fear. Ahead of us the homely greens and browns of the shallow reef gave way to the dark indigo of the deep. Huge buttresses of coral plunged down hundreds of feet in parallel walls separated by deep channels. Vivid purple finger-corals vied for space with yellow lettuce-coral, while great mounds of blue and green polyps rose from the bottom.

When calculating global MPA coverage, what sites to include is a central question In the 13 years since we started publication, the MPA News team has generally taken an inclusive view of what counts as a marine protected area. Gear closures, temporary closures, underwater cultural sites, closed areas around military bases – we have drawn lessons from all of these at one time or another. Our reasoning is two-fold. First, when useful knowledge and experience can be transferred from such sites to the managers of more strictly defined MPAs, we should seize such opportunities. We would rather err on the…

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Editor’s note: Anton Wijonarno is Marine Biodiversity and Programme Monitoring Manager for WWF-Indonesia. By Anton Wijonarno Indonesia has a system of marine protected areas that was designed in 1984, and mandated to be managed by the Ministry of Forestry and Nature Conservation. Challenged with limited resources to implement marine conservation, this ministry collaborates closely with several national and international conservation NGOs to build the capacity of its park staff and operations. WWF and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) support the management of Indonesian national parks and other forms of MPAs. The support is provided in partnership with local governments and communities…

Editor’s note: Alice Cornthwaite is Marine Support Officer for the Joint Nature Conservation Committee of the UK. The JNCC is the statutory adviser to the UK Government on national and international nature conservation. By Alice Cornthwaite, UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee The UK has had a busy 2012 in terms of progressing marine protected areas and working towards the aim of establishing a well-managed network of MPAs by 2016. MPAs will protect UK marine life while allowing sustainable and legitimate use of our seas to continue. The network of MPAs will also ensure we meet our commitments under international agreements…

Australian Government officially designates final network of Commonwealth MPAs It is now official. On 16 November as MPA News went to press, the Australian Government formally approved what it proposed last June – a national representative system of MPAs that increases the nation’s MPA system from 27 sites to 60, and now covers 3 million km2 in total (MPA News 14:1). Described by the Government as the most comprehensive marine park network worldwide, the system includes the new Coral Sea Marine Reserve, a nearly 1 million-km2 area of which half will be no-take. The process of developing management plans for…

Editor’s note: The LMMA Network supports learning, advocacy, partnership, and institutional development for community-driven marine resource management and conservation, including through the use of locally-managed marine areas or LMMAs (www.lmmanetwork.org). In this recurring feature “LMMA Lessons”, the network offers insights that its practitioners have gathered over the past decade. The Locally-Managed Marine Area Network held a tok story side event at the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium, held in Cairns, Australia, in July 2012. Tok story is a Pacific expression meaning to share experiences informally. Similar to other LMMA Network sharing events, the evening began with acknowledgment of local traditional…