Pacific Nation Bans Fishing in One of World's Largest Marine Parks

by Guest Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:27 pm

A tiny island nation that controls a vast area of the Pacific Ocean has announced it will ban all commercial fishing in a massive marine park that is the size of California.
Anote Tong, the president of Kiribati—a chain of islands about halfway between Hawaii and Fiji—announced Monday that commercial fishing will end in the country's Phoenix Islands Protected Area on January 1, 2015.
"We will also close the area around the southern Line Islands to commercial fishing to allow the area to recover," said Tong, who spoke at the Our Ocean conference hosted by the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. The southern Line Islands also will be closed to fishing by the beginning of next year.
The Phoenix Islands and the southern Line Islands represent some of the most pristine coral reef archipelagos in the Pacific, says National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala, who led the first underwater expedition to the five uninhabited southern Line Islands in 2009 as part of National Geographic's Pristine Seas project.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140616-kiribati-marine-park-commercial-fishing-ocean-protection/

by nicko Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:33 pm

Didge, I agree with that, greedy fishermen have destroyed fishing grounds all over the world.

by gerber Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:52 pm

Thank goodness Fish will be saved...................... Along with their fingers.

Newsflash............... Ocean full of happy fish now able to pick their noses in peace....

by Guest Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:22 pm

Good for them!

Gerbs, you do make me laugh xxxx

by Ben Reilly Sun Jun 22, 2014 8:16 am

gerber wrote:Thank goodness Fish will be saved...................... Along with their fingers.

Newsflash............... Ocean full of happy fish now able to pick their noses in peace....

It's about overfishing until we've destroyed the fish population, is it not?

If we take it all it will by definition be gone ... or am I just engaging in some sort of deluded lefty fantasy bullshit yet again?

by Lone Wolf Sun Jun 22, 2014 12:46 pm

SO MUCH of the oceans around Asia and Africa have been overfished and destroyed over the past decades, first by "long lining" in the '70s and 80s; and today it's those mega-nets dropped over 20-30 kms, all to feed their "mother (factory) ships"...

THAT these days it's common to have rogue fishing fleets invading Aussie, NZ, other Pacific, and American territories, to make up for those catches they can no longer find in their home territories..

[AND, let's not mention the illegal "side catches" that kills thousands of dolphins, seals, turtles, and "non target" species such as sharks, every year - that's just ' commercial reality bad luck' according to the "economic rationalists" refusing as they do, to place any intrinsic value in wildlife, "natural balances", "interconnectivity" and the "biodiversity" that supports their ecosytems..].

SO YES, every fisheries reserve that provides somewhere for fish populations to breed up and rebuild has to be a little welcome..

WHETHER it will be in time to save the world's fisheries, that still remains to be seen ! Surprised

by nicko Sun Jun 22, 2014 4:36 pm

Saw a program some time ago, men were cutting the fins off live sharks and just throwing them back in the sea, all to satisfy the tastes of the bloody Chinese.The Chinese must be the worlds worst in eating wildlife.

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Pacific Nation Bans Fishing in One of World's Largest Marine Parks

Pacific Nation Bans Fishing in One of World's Largest Marine Parks

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Re: Pacific Nation Bans Fishing in One of World's Largest Marine Parks

Re: Pacific Nation Bans Fishing in One of World's Largest Marine Parks

Re: Pacific Nation Bans Fishing in One of World's Largest Marine Parks

Re: Pacific Nation Bans Fishing in One of World's Largest Marine Parks

Re: Pacific Nation Bans Fishing in One of World's Largest Marine Parks

Re: Pacific Nation Bans Fishing in One of World's Largest Marine Parks