Oceans Need Mobile Marine Protected Areas

Designated marine protected areas' boundaries should be more flexible and more closely follow the movements of nature, according to the latest scientific thoughts.

While marine protection zones are currently fixed, establishing mobile zones that follow the real-life progress of birds and sealife represents a better way of looking after them, says Professor Larry Crowder - a US-based marine biologist - and others.

The scientists' theory was put forward at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Annual Meeting, which began on 16 February and concludes today. Here, they explained how the idea of banning fishing in certain, fixed oceanic areas was out of date and didn't mirror the dynamic movement of certain types of sealife, especially in response to the effects of climate change.

Mobile Marine Protection

Therefore, new mobile marine protected areas are necessary, they said, and there's a wealth of animal tracking study data to support this notion. The development of these types of areas could better safeguard the likes of sharks, turtles, albatrosses and more, they added.

"Less than one per cent of the ocean is protected at this point, and these marine parks tend to be built around things that sit still like coral reefs and seamounts", Professor Crowder explained.

He continued: "But tracking studies show that many, many organisms...respond to oceanographic features that don't have a fixed point. These features are fronts and eddies that may move seasonally, from summer to winter, and from year-to-year based on oceanographic climate changes like El Nino or the Pacific Decadal Oscillation."

Protected Ocean Areas

Overall, the scientists are pushing for the adoption of a seasonal approach to creating new protected ocean areas and not one based on geography alone. For example, there's an area of water in the middle of the Pacific Ocean known as the White Shark Cafe, renowned as a meeting place for great white sharks. This patch is expected to move in years to come and, if a traditional marine protected area had been established, it could fall outside its boundaries.

However, with a mobile marine zone in place, the White Shark Cafe would remain protected. The situation would undeniably limit fishermen in some ways but it's been pointed out that they'd benefit, too: with rich new trawling areas set to open up as the mobile zones move onto new locations.

"People might say the only way to achieve conservation for some marine life is to protect it everywhere in the ocean", Crowder added. "But if we know where they move to, we don't need to close the entire Pacific Ocean, we just need to close this place where they are really concentrated. The time is right for this idea. We are scientifically primed to do it."

See also:

Australia Plans Largest Marine Conservation Zone