S CIENTIFIC R ATIONALEFORTHE D ESIGNATIONOF V ERY L ARGE M ARINE R ESERVES

I NTRODUCTION
Theworldsmarineecosystemscontinuetobeseriouslydegradedbyoverfishing,pollution,climate change and other human activities that ultimately threaten the livelihoods, food security and economicdevelopmentofmanymillionsofpeople.Itisnowevidentthattheworldsoceansneed to be better managed if we are to safeguard the full range of their marine life and critically importantecosystemservices. While5.8percentofterrestrialhabitatshavebeendesignatedasnotakeparkstoconservetheir biodiversityandtheecosystemservicestheyprovidetohumansocieties,asofMay2010lessthan 0.4percentoftheworldsoceansarefullyprotected.Mostofthesemarinenotakeareasaresmall and inshore, providing important local conservation benefits in regions that are already heavily fished. However, these small areas provide relatively limited protection for many wideranging speciesthatmovethroughthebroaderseascape.Largereserves,whereecologicalprocessesand functions can operate much as they have for millennia, are virtually missing from the marine conservationandmanagementportfolio.Theworldsgreatterrestrialparksprovideanimportant service in preserving ecosystems and wideranging species and in supporting nonextractive industriessuchastourism.Theworldneedstoestablishsimilaroceanscalereserves. GlobalOceanLegacy,aprojectofthePewEnvironmentGroupanditspartners,seekstoidentify and protect a small number of very large marine ecosystems over five years in areas which historically have not been fished intensively, are still relatively intact and are within political jurisdictions of nations with the capability to monitor and enforce protection. Growing market demandsforevermoreinaccessiblefishstocksmeansthatevenisolatedandremotelocationsare likelytolosetheirdefactoconservationstatusinthenearfutureunlessthereisatransformative improvementinmanagementandgovernanceofmarineecosystems.Creatingaworldwidesystem of very large marine notake areas is an essential and longoverdue contribution to improving stewardshipoftheglobalmarineenvironment.

S UPPORTING S TATEMENTS
Recently,therehavebeenanumberofpromisingdevelopmentsinmarineconservation.In2004, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was rezoned to make onethird of the 344,400 square kilometer park notakenow the worlds largest marine reserve network; in 2006, two oceanic coral archipelago systems were protected: the 362,000squarekilometer Papahnaumokukea Marine National Monument in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands which became fully notake in January2010,andthe408,000squarekilometerPhoenixIslandsProtectedAreaintheRepublicof Kiribatiwhichisnowpartiallynotake.In2009,formerU.S.PresidentGeorgeW.Bushestablished threenewMarineNationalMonumentsinthePacific,covering505,000squarekilometers,with60

percent being notake. And finally, in 2010, the United Kingdom established the544,000 square kilometerChagosProtectedAreaasthelargestnotakereserveintheworld. The goal of Global Ocean Legacy is to identify and secure protection for additional large marine ecosystemsuntil recently protected only by their geographic isolationbefore significant environmentaldegradationcanoccur.Theexpectedbenefitsofthesereservesinclude: 1. Ensuring that top predators such as sharks, swordfish and marine mammals remain abundantandpreservingexemplarsofrelativelyintactfoodwebsthatarefreefromsevere depletion. 2. Providingreferencesitesforfuturescientificresearchandpubliceducation. 3. Matchingthescaleofmanagementtothescaleofimportantecosystemprocesses,such asdispersalandmigrationofmanyspecies.Offshoreislandsandreefsaretypicallysmall andrelativelyisolatedfromeachothercomparedtocontinentalcoastlines.Consequently, marinespeciesatisolatedlocationshavefewerandmoredistantsourcesofreplenishment. Effectivemanagementshouldprotecttheentirelifecycleofspecies. 4. Improving resilience to the accelerating impacts of climate change. A growing body of evidenceindicatesthatprotectingthestructureoffoodwebsandmaintainingtheecological functionoftargetedspeciesiscriticalforbuildingresilienceandpreventingregimeshiftsto degradedecosystems. 5. Ensuringthelongtermrecovery,conservationandmaintenanceofpopulationsofhighly mobile and migratory species. Large reserves protect a sufficient expanse of ocean to provideimportanthabitatandrefugiaforspeciessuchastuna,sharks,seabirds,turtlesand marinemammals. 6. Ensuring protection whilst minimizing social and economic costs. Very large notake marine reserves are highly appropriate for remote, relatively intact areas because they protect biodiversity, species and habitat in areas where there are few existing uses and thereforeminimalpotentialconflictsandcoststosociety. 7. Enhancingtheglobalreputationsofmanagingnations.Countriesthatcreateverylargeno take areas will be recognized as world leaders in developing new solutions for the stewardshipofmarinebiodiversity.

C ONCLUSION
Globally,thereareonlyasmallnumberofintactregionswhereitispossibletoestablish,monitor andprotectverylargemarinereserves.Theseregionsshouldbeanurgentpriorityforprotection, based on strong public and political support. We support the efforts of Global Ocean Legacy in seeking to establish a new benchmark for the protection of ocean ecosystemsone to which all nationscanaspire.