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Marshall Islands guards ‘treasures’ with new marine sanctuary

SYDNEY (AFP) – Marshall Islands declared yesterday its first national marine sanctuary, protecting a “pristine” expanse of tropical Pacific Ocean home to deep-sea sharks and green turtles.

Like many Pacific islands, the low-lying Marshall Islands are highly vulnerable to climate change and rising seas, which has placed “extreme pressure” on its biodiversity, the World Bank warned in 2021.

It announced yesterday that it has banned fishing in the waters surrounding two northern isles, an area teeming with vibrant corals, rare giant clams and reclusive deep-sea sharks.

“The only way to continue benefiting from the ocean’s treasures is to protect it,” Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said in a statement.

“I am proud of our country’s first marine sanctuary, which certainly won’t be its last.” The sanctuary lies to the east of Marshall Islands’ Bikini Atoll. It covers 48,000 square kilometres – dwarfing Switzerland – and surrounds the uninhabited atolls of Bikar and Bokak, which are renowned green turtle nesting grounds.

“We aim to preserve the ecological integrity of this region to ensure that these two atolls remain pristine for future generations,” the country’s Marine Resources Authority told AFP in a statement.

Conservationist Enric Sala said Marshall Islands was home to some of the healthiest marine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean.

“This new marine sanctuary protects global biodiversity jewels,” said Sala, who founded the National Geographic Pristine Seas expedition that surveyed the atolls in 2023.

“These pristine atolls are time machines that show us what the ocean was like before humans, and what coral reefs could be in the future if we so wish,” he told AFP.

PHOTO: ENVATO
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