Wednesday January 29, 2025
Oceanographic Magazine —
The first marine sanctuary of the Marshall Islands has just been announced by the Pacific island nation. While it will cover two remote atolls, it will span across 48,000 square kilometres around the country’s two northernmost islands – Bikar and Bokak.
With their healthy shark populations and coral ecosystems, the islands are considered “two of the most pristine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean”, according to National Geographic Pristine Seas which helped collect the data and information on which the new Marine Protected Area (MPA) is based.
The new marine sanctuary will now be fully protected from fishing and is part of the Marshall Islands’ Reimaanlok Conservation Framework which promotes community-led management of protected areas across the archipelago. Reimanlook translates to “look towards the future” and describes a special conservation approach which puts special emphasis on traditional knowledge and Indigenous insights so that local communities can manage their own fisheries and land resources within the protected areas.
“The ocean as our ancestors knew it is vanishing,” said Dr Hilda Heine, the Marshall Islands president. “Without sustainable ocean ecosystems, our economy, stability and cultural identity will collapse.