X-Ray Mag

Marine Protected Areas

NOAA designates new national marine sanctuary in Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan

2 years ago By Matthew Meier
An exciting recreational opportunity: a diver swims over the two-masted schooner, Walter B. Allen, which sank in 1880. (Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin Historical Society)

“Preserving this region furthers the Biden-Harris Administration’s vision of locally-led, collaborative conservation,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo. “This designation is also an exciting opportunity for the public to celebrate and help protect this piece of our nation’s rich maritime history.”

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Triples in Size

3 years ago By Matthew Meier
Photo credit: G.P. Schmahl/NOAA

Moving forward, this expansion means increased protections for important species and habitats. The expansion areas will be home to future conservation work and support resource protection, recreation and stewardship for local communities and the country. In particular, the sanctuary’s expansion provides an excellent opportunity to: 

The staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) is a branching, stony coral with cylindrical branches ranging from a few centimetres to over two metres in length and height.

Coral restoration projects show promise in Florida Keys

3 years ago By Main minion

Reef-building staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) was abundant and widespread throughout the Caribbean and Florida until the late 1970s.  The fast-growing coral formed dense thickets in forereef, backreef, and patch-reef environments to depths over 20 m. 

Hammerhead, Bahamas
Hammerhead, Bahamas. The great hammerhead—considered endangered by the IUCN Red List—is the largest of the nine hammerhead shark species

Large sharks benefit from marine reserves

8 years ago By Main minion

Current research has shown that waters off Florida and the Bahamas are important pupping and feeding grounds for several sharks, providing them with the critical habitat required for the conservation of these slow-to-mature ocean animals.

Researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science studied the core home range of 86 bull, great hammerhead and tiger sharks tagged in waters off south Florida and the northern Bahamas.

Adamstown, the only settlement on the Pitcairn Islands

Britain creates world's largest marine reserve

9 years ago By Scott Bennett

The British government has created the world's largest marine reserve around the Pitcairn Islands, one of the world's most remote locations. Offering unprecedented protection to more than 1,200 species of marine mammals, fish and sea birds in the South Pacific, the 322,138-square-mile reserve is located is approximately three-and-half times the size of the United Kingdom.

Enric Sala / National Geographic

Gabon Announces World's Newest Underwater Reserve

9 years ago By Main minion

The new Gabon marine protected area network complements an existing terrestrial protected area system anchored by 13 national parks created in 2002.

When Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba declared that the African nation was protecting almost one-quarter of its Atlantic Ocean territorial waters, home to dozens of species of threatened whales, dolphins, sharks and turtles, the worldwide reaction was positive and instantaneous.

Subscribe to Marine Protected Areas