Safeguarding Reefs: Marshall Islands Establishes 48,000 Sq Kilometres Marine Protected Area

Wednesday, 29 January 2025, 8:33 pm
Article: RNZ

Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific Journalist

The Marshall Islands has created its first marine protected area, with one marine scientist describing it as one of the most spectacular places on earth.

The country is putting two of its most remote atolls, Bikar and Bokak, under protection from fishing, covering 48,000 square kilometres - about the size of Switzerland.

National Geographic's Pristine Seas director of expeditions Ryan Jenkinson who visited the site in 2023, said it's what coral reefs look like when they are totally left alone.

"The programmes been going almost 20 years to some of the most remote places, the most pristine places in the world's oceans, Bikar and Bokak were, if not the most pristine, some of the most pristine waters and coral reefs and coral atolls we have ever viewed anywhere on earth," Jenkinson said.

"Staggering abundances of fish and giant clams and large predators like sharks."

Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said the nations economy and cultural identity rely on the health of the ocean.

"The only way to continue benefiting from the ocean's treasures is to protect it. I am proud of our country's first marine sanctuary, which certainly won't be its last."

Glen Joseph, director of the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority said the world's ocean is being degraded.

"We are able to bring part of it back by recognizing that protection and food production are not mutually exclusive.

"Safeguarding areas of high biodiversity delivers benefits to local communities who rely on fish and other aspects of a healthy environment. Our future depends on protecting our ocean."

The expedition team, made up of local researchers and Pristine Seas, found the largest green turtle nesting colony and seabird colonies in Marshall Islands on the two atolls.

It also had the highest coral cover and giant clam densities in the central and western Pacific.

"The presence of rare fish spawning aggregations and shark mating; and little known deep-sea communities with potentially new species of fishes and invertebrates; and abundant deep-sea sharks," a statement from Pristine Seas said.

Jenkinson said by protecting thriving reefs, surrounding areas also benefit.

"When you have a fully functional reef which means all the components are there all of the herbivorous fish that raise the algae off the reef so it can grow which means there's more predators and things and the reef is functioning as a whole. Those fish get larger they are able to reproduce at a higher rate, their fecundity is much higher and you get more fish in the area to populate the areas that are struggling."

He said it will also have a better chance of warding off the impacts of climate change compared to a less healthy reef.

"When you have these fully intact reefs even if the water gets so warm that some bleaching happens and some of the reef dies it will bounce back, really, really quickly. They have adapted and evolved to bounce back but only if they are totally functioning."

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