The World's Biggest Marine Reserve

Features

In 2008, the Pacific Island state of Kiribati created what was then the world’s largest Marine Reserve in their own waters.

And last year George Bush went one better and created an even larger Marine Reserve in the US Pacific waters.
But now Britain has the chance to top both of them.
No-take Marine Reserves have a vital role to play in protecting our seas from destructive dredging and fishing. We urgently need more of them – scientists say that 20-50% of our oceans should be set aside and protected in this way. Reserves help our marine life withstand all of the other pressures we are creating, from climate change to destructive fishing practices.
Most obviously they also provide a vital refuge for the amazing plants and animals that live in our oceans, from slow growing corals, to turtles, sharks and seabirds, as well as a safe place for commercially-important fish species to recover and thrive.
So it’s great news that our government is consulting over plans which could see us create the world’s largest Marine Reserve (26 times the size of Wales, fact-fans). The area in question is the Chagos archipelago, which contains 55 small islands, the world’s largest coral atoll, and about half of the pristine coral reefs in the Indian Ocean.