Mexico Creates Largest Ocean Reserve In North America

Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has signed a decree creating the largest marine reserve yet in North America. The protected area spans 57,000 square miles around the Revillagigedo Islands located 240 miles southwest of the Baja Peninsula.

The islands have had a biosphere reserve protection for more than 20 years, but this new status will fully protect the region from fishing, mining and other extractive industries. The uninhabited islands will now also be protected from hotel developments and other tourism infrastructure.

The Revillagigedo islands support many species of endangered birds and plants, the decree’s goal is to preserve the waters offshore, which support 366 species of fish, 26 of whom are endemic to the region, as well as 37 species of rays and sharks, including whale sharks. The islands also function as calving grounds for humpback whales and support coral gardens and other pristine marine ecosystems.

“It’s an important place biologically for megafauna, kind of superhighway, if you will, for sharks, manta rays, whales, and turtles,” said the director of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, Matt Rand, to the Smithsonian. “It’s a pretty biologically spectacular location.”

Local fishermen have shown opposition to the project, but according to reports, the reserve will impact only 7% of the waters that are being fished by the Mexican tuna fleet. As a matter of fact, the reserve could actually improve fishing because the increased population in fish will spill over outside the protected areas like it happened back in 1998 with the reserve made in the Galapagos islands.

Matt Rand claims that the reserve has all of the elements to make a successful ocean sanctuary. “There was a key study in Nature three years ago that found the five key elements to successful marine reserves are that they are large, fully protected, old, well-enforced and isolated,” Rand says. “This marine reserve will have all of that except age, and that will come.”

Rand also told the Smithsonian that these recently established reserves, as well as other proposed projects, are a good sign of sustainability. The current scientific consensus is that at least 30% of ocean waters need to be fully protected in order to conserve biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. Rand says that less than 10% is protected and only 2% is highly protected.

“We have a long way to go,” he says. “But there’s been incredible growth in the concept of large-scale marine protected areas. It’s almost becoming a race. Hopefully, it’s starting to snowball.”

Article inspired by the Smithsonian // Mexico Establishes Largest Marine Protected Area in North America