<
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/huge-new-no-fishing-zones-give-antarctic-marine-predators-and-their-prey-a-break/>
"Thousands of miles off the southeast coast of South America lies a set of
remote islands, one broad and comma-shaped, the others a series of small dots
that trail off into the South Atlantic Ocean. These are the South Georgia and
South Sandwich Islands, located north of the icy mass of Antarctica.
The islands, which the U.K. governs as an overseas territory but which
Argentina also claims, are inhabited by millions of seals and birds, and the
surrounding waters teem with fish and krill. Baleen whales, such as humpback
(
Megaptera novaeangliae) and fin (
Balaenoptera physalus) whales, make
yearly migrations to this area to feast on the surplus of krill.
On Feb. 26, the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) government,
which acts as an extension of the U.K. government, announced a decision to
safeguard the marine biodiversity within its jurisdiction. A preexisting
1.24-million-square-kilometer (479,000-square-mile) marine protected area (MPA)
around the islands was originally established in 2012, and it banned all bottom
trawling as well as bottom fishing at depths less than 700 meters (2,300 feet).
The government has now established new no-take zones within the MPA that will
be adopted into SGSSI legislation. These new no-take zones prohibit all fishing
on a total of 166,000 km² (64,100 mi²) of the MPA, an area about eight times
the size of Wales.
Prior to these protections being put in place, the existing MPA already had
283,000 km² (109,300 mi²) of other no-take areas. With the new no-take areas,
the MPA is now 36% fully protected."
Via
Fix the News:
<
https://fixthenews.com/good-news-child-deaths-clean-cooking-conservation-southern-ocean/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
