Only Four Percent Of The Ocean Is Protected, New Study Reveals

Only four percent of the ocean is protected, and marine protected areas (MPA) make up all of that four percent, according to researchers from the University of British Columbia, Institute for Ocean and Fisheries.

"The targets call for much more than just 10 percent protection," said Lisa Boonzaier, lead author of the study. "They require that protected areas be effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected, all of which will help to ensure that MPAs contribute to more than percentage targets and meet the goal of conserving biodiversity."

The researchers urge that major areas in the oceans require major conservation and protection in order to meet basic global targets, according a news release.

Representatives from over 200 countries met in Nagoya, Japan in 2010, where they adopted the United Nations' Aichi Targets in order to preserve biodiversity. The United Nations' goal is to protect at least 10 percent of ocean biodiversity by 2020.

Boonaier claimed that countries need to create more MPA's and they need to improve protection of biodiversity and ensuring that policies are enforced. In "No-take" marine protected areas, it is it is prohibited to extract any resources, which includes living resources like fish, crustaceans and seaweed as well as non-living resources, such as oil and gas. In 2006, 0.65 percent of the oceans were protected.

Early this October, the Chilean government announced that one of the largest marine reserves in the Americas was created hundreds of miles off the Chile's coast. The new marine protected area is approximately the size of Italy. The area is known as the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park, and it consists of 8 percent of ocean areas worldwide that have been declared off-limits to fishing. 

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