Environmental News Network - United States’ Ocean Conservation Efforts Have Major Gaps, Oregon State University Analysis Shows

Details: By Oregon State University; 18.May

More than 98% of U.S. waters outside the central Pacific Ocean are not part of a marine protected area, and the ones that are tend toward “lightly” or “minimally” protected from damaging human activity, research led by Oregon State University shows.

Cheryl Porter

More than 98% of U.S. waters outside the central Pacific Ocean are not part of a marine protected area, and the ones that are tend toward “lightly” or “minimally” protected from damaging human activity, research led by Oregon State University shows.

Published today in Frontiers in Marine Science, the study examined the nation’s 50 largest marine protected areas, or MPAs, using a groundbreaking guide produced last year by some of the same scientists who worked on the current research. Those 50 account for 99.7% of the United States’ MPA coverage.

Among the study’s conclusions: The U.S. needs to create more, and more effective, MPAs – and fast.

“These findings highlight an urgent need to improve the quality, quantity and representativeness of MPA protection across U.S. waters to bring benefits to human and marine communities,” said Jenna Sullivan-Stack, a research associate at Oregon State University and the study’s lead author.

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United States’ Ocean Conservation Efforts Have Major Gaps, Oregon State University Analysis Shows