UK to ban fishing from a million square kilometres of ocean
Government creates marine protected areas around four islands in the Pacific and Atlantic, with commercial fishing banned in some areas
Great Britain last night announced designation of the Pitcairn Islands EEZ as a marine reserve. It is one of a suite of new marine reserves being designated across Britain’s territorial seas, including St Helena in the Atlantic.
The announcement came shortly before US Secretary of State John Kerry was due to kick off the two-day "Our Ocean" conference in Washington.
The Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve is 830,000 square kilometres in area. It was described by John Sinclair, the British High Commissioner to Pitcairn, New Zealand and Samoa, as an area that provides a “Blue Belt” of protection against illegal fishing, deep sea mining and other impacts on ocean health. Britain delayed this declaration until the satisfactory completion of a 1-year trial of marine surveillance capabilities over the area. This has enabled the United Kingdom and the Pitcairn Islands to declare the area together with a comprehensive plan to use modern technologies for surveillance and enforcement of fishing and other activities. The government will also provide $26M towards management, surveillance and enforcement of its new overseas marine reserves over the next 4 years. Pitcairn, St Helena, Tristan da Cunha and Ascension Islands marine reserves amount to over 4
The locally elected Pitcairn Island Council led the original proposal for a marine reserve in 2013, with the help of Pew’s Global Ocean Legacy project and he National Geographic Society. The Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve enables the local community to continue their use of nearshore areas for subsistence fishing, ecotourism, scientific uses, etc.
SPREP and the French MPA Agency AAMP are working with Pitcairn Islands to enhance capacity for MPA management in our Biodiversity Blue Belt project, funded by the EU BEST 2.0 initiative.
