What are MPAs and why we need them?

What are MPAs and why are they so important??

?Our oceans, seas and lakes face a triple threat of climate change, over fishing and destruction of habitats.?Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are areas of the sea or ocean in which some activities are restricted, regulated or prohibited to protect them from these threats.

?MPAs are critical to the goal to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.?Only 7% of oceans are thought to be protected currently.?Very few (less than 3%) have the higher protected status of No-Take MPA where no fishing, mining, drilling, or other extractive activities is permitted .

Even areas listed as MPAs continue to be threatened, with many under-resourced and under-financed for adequate protection.?These areas, listed as 'protected' but lacking sufficient monitoring and enforcement, are sometimes known as ‘paper parks’.

?What is bottom trawling?

Bottom trawling or ‘dragging’ (fishing using heavy weighted nets dragged across the ocean floor) is sadly still commonplace and MPAs are not automatically protected from its high negative impact.

Likened to ‘bulldozing across national parks', it is mass extraction of species, critical damage to the oceanfloor ecosystem and extensive disturbance of seabed sediment.

Marine sediment is considered the largest pool of carbon storage in the world and as such its protection has far reaching benefits for limiting climate change.

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Good news in the UK

Doggerbank, the UK’s largest sandbank, and three other MPAs are to benefit from bylaws that come into place in June 2022 ending bottom trawling in those areas. It is hoped by campaigners that attention will then turn to the protection of the UK’s other 60 MPAs.?

?How can the Travel & Tourism industry help?

While global co-operation is needed to hit ocean protection targets, the travel and tourism industry can play an important role in supporting our ocean ecosystems.

Tourism can provide a source of income that decreases overfishing and demonstrate the value of protecting marine life and habitats. For this to be a sustainable practice it needs to have local needs at the core, providing direct financial benefits to communities, whilst being built on education for locals and tourists alike and scrupulously planned to ensure it uplifts conservation without creating further negative impact.?

?*Source: Nature. April 2021 - Article - Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate.?