Eight very large Marine Protected Areas totalling over three and a third million square kilometres surround breeding sites of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels

A number of Marine Protected Areas offers at-sea protection to ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels (click here).  All these MPAs or equivalents include within their boundaries islands or island groups which are breeding sites for one or more of the 30 ACAP-listed species. Several of them are situated in the North Pacific and Southern Oceans.

In recent years very large MPAs that are more than or approach 100 000 km² in size have been declared or expanded.  Eight of them that surround island groups supporting ACAP-listed species total over 3.34 million square kilometres.

In order of the year of their original designation these eight very large MPAs are:

Galapagos Marine Reserve, Ecuador, 1998, 133 000 km²

Macquarie Island Nature Reserve and Marine Park, Australia, 1999, 162 000 km²

Heard and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve, Australia, 2002 & 2014, 71 200 km²

Papāhanaumokuākea Marine National Monument, USA, 2006, 362 074 km²

Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, USA, 2009 & 2014, 1 270 000 km²

South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf MPA, 2009, CCAMLR, 94 000 km²

South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur)* MPA, disputed, 2010, 1 070 000 km²

Prince Edward Islands MPA, South Africa, 013, 180 000 km²

Overall, MPAs cover around one percent of the World’s oceans and seas.

John Cooper ACAP Information Officer,12 November 2014

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.