Thursday, February 14, 2008

Ocean protection in Kiribati

Small but mighty, Kiribati nudged past the US and created the largest Marine Protected Area in the world. Nice to see this kind of competition for the "biggest," I wonder who's next?

The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) includes an large intact coral reef system on a series of atolls, and also includes underwater mountains and other deep-sea habitat.

Kiribati is looking to the future, and giving up some hard currency they could get from commercial fishing. In return, they expect to do a better job supporting subsistence fishing while protecting their ocean ecosystems and making them better able to persist in the face of climate change.

Yay, Kirabati, it's a good day for the ocean

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