Three New Marine Parks Protect Stunning Biodiversity
The countries of Chile and Niue just made a huge splash in the world of ocean conservation.
Niue, a tiny South Pacific island nation with a population of roughly 1,600, has turned 40 percent of its exclusive economic zone into a marine park, and Chile added two new marine parks where fishing and all other extractive activities are banned.
Together, the three new parks protect some 290,000 square miles of ocean—an area more than twice the size of Germany.
The two countries will announce their new marine protected areas (MPAs) at the Our Ocean conference, which runs in Malta on Thursday and Friday. The three reserves are scientifically supported by the National Geographic Society's Pristine Seas project.
The Niue reserve encompasses the
