Three cheers for Kiribati
Posted February 14, 2008 in Reviving the World's Oceans
Polish up your dive kit and book a flight to Kiribati, which just created the world's largest marine protected area. This expands the large area designated in the Phoenix Islands in 2006. At more than 164,000 square miles it's going to be a tough record to beat, but it means the coral atolls and reefs in that part of the island chain will be untouched by the foreign fishing fleets that have wreaked havoc elsewhere. Kiribati (pronounced kee-ree-bahs) also gets props for avoiding the devastating trap of phosphate mining that has literally undermined other South Pacific islands, like Nauru, and they're hoping to grow their tourism industry, which is now about 20% of their economy. At a minimum, I'm hoping some of the scientists looking at ocean acidification and resiliency in the face of warming ocean waters will head out there quick to set up some baselines.
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Miriam Goldstein — Feb 15 2008 01:38 PM
Yay Kiribati! There's some SIO researchers who work out there, and they've found pristine reefs complete with shockingly intact shark populations. This writeup is a bit cheesy, but it has some nice description.