Though still largely unexplored, Easter Island’s waters are known to contain geological hot spots and areas of rare biodiversity. The region is home to highly migratory fish species and features seamounts ranging from 8.4 million to 13.1 million years old.
Located north of New Zealand’s North Island, the Kermadec region remains one of the few relatively unspoiled places on Earth. Pew is calling for the declaration of a Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary to protect this region and ensure that the unique biodiversity found there is conserved.
The Pitcairn Islands is an unspoiled and remote environment that is home to hundreds of species of fish, including two found nowhere else on Earth. Pew and its partners are calling for the establishment of a large, fully protected marine reserve to protect the health of this important marine ecosystem.
When the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument was established in 2006, it was the largest highly protected marine reserve in the world at 140,000 square miles (363,000 square kilometers). Creation of the monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands received bipartisan support in the United States and was followed by the designation of more than a dozen large-scale marine parks around the world, nine larger than this initial effort.
The waters of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago are vast, covering an area about three times the size of the U.K. mainland. Four islands make up the archipelago: Tristan, Inaccessible, Nightingale, and Gough. Tristan, the only inhabited island, is the largest. They are relatively unspoiled and vitally important for a wide range of fish, birds, whales, and seals. The remote location of this British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean—about 2,400 kilometers east of South Africa—means that a large number of these species are found nowhere else on Earth.
Our goal is to ensure that Australia’s Coral Sea Marine National Park—the second-largest highly protected marine reserve in the world—remains protected.
In January 2009, U.S. President George W. Bush designated three areas in the Pacific Ocean as marine national monuments. At the time, this was the largest act of marine conservation in history.
In June 2014, the administration of President Barack Obama announced it would expand protections for the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. This collection of seven islands, atolls, and reefs between Hawaii and American Samoa contains nearly 250 seamounts, or undersea mountains, as well as amazing coral ecosystems that provide breeding, nursery, and feeding grounds for whales, sea turtles, fish, and millions of seabirds.
Located in the western Pacific Ocean, Palau is world renowned for its healthy and incredibly diverse marine ecosystem. Pew is working with the President of Palau to create a large, fully protected marine reserve in the island nation’s waters.
Bermuda, an island in the North Atlantic, sits within the ecologically important Sargasso Sea—a unique marine environment where vast mats of seaweed protect more than 100 species of fish and 145 kinds of invertebrates. Pew and its partners are calling for the establishment of a large, fully protected marine reserve, dubbed the Blue Halo, to protect Bermuda's waters.
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Matt Rand
Senior Director
Marine Habitat Protection
