French Polynesia to protect more pacific ocean
‘We are going to add two new marine protected areas: one to the northeast of the Marquesas Islands and the second to the south of the Austral Islands.’
Daily Tribune‘We are going to add two new marine protected areas: one to the northeast of the Marquesas Islands and the second to the south of the Austral Islands.’
PAPEETE, France (AFP) — French Polynesia has announced it will expand the size of its fully shielded natural reserves inside what is already the world’s largest marine protected area in the far South Pacific.
The overseas territory of France, since last year, has a vast area of almost five million square kilometers that is protected.
It will now increase the area where any human activity is totally forbidden from 1.1 to 1.6 million square kms.
“This is our mission as Oceanians,” Moetai Brotherson, president of the archipelago, told Agence France-Presse.
“We also hope that it can inspire other countries, especially the larger ones, in the way they manage their relationship with the ocean.”
The existing 1.1 million square kilometers of fully protected waters are called “no-take zones, where only sustainable tourism activities and certain traditional fishing activities may be authorized,” he said.
These areas — where commercial fishing is banned — include a 680,000-square-kilometer marine park in the Gambier Islands, which, together with the neighboring Pitcairn reserve, forms the world’s largest strictly protected transboundary area, and another near the Society Islands.
A smaller part is made up of coastal waters where small boats are allowed limited fishing.
“We are going to add two new marine protected areas: one to the northeast of the Marquesas Islands and the second to the south of the Austral Islands,” Brotherson said.
He urged more state funding to help protect the ocean, as well as more navy patrols of the area.
