“Pretty damned exciting news” say Kermadec campaigners
Plans for a massive marine sanctuary at the Kermadecs, about 1000km northeast of New Zealand, have been announced by Prime Minister John Key at the UN General Assembly in New York.
“The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will be one of the world’s largest and most significant fully protected areas”.
The sanctuary will hold the world’s longest chain of submerged volcanoes along with the second deepest ocean trench, measuring around 10km deep.
The area is considered crucial in terms of biodiversity, featuring almost 35 species of whales and dolphins, 150 types of fish and three of the world’s seven sea turtle species.
Mr Key said he thought in decades to come New Zealanders would judge the decision to set-up the sanctuary as the right one, just as today’s generations viewed the establishment of national parks such as Fiordland and Tongariro.
According to a Government leaflet accompanying the announcement, the sanctuary’s clear, deep waters are home to an wonderful array of marine life, and provide an important migration path for many marine species.
“The new legislation needs to apply to the Exclusive Economic Zone, so that a proper programme of spatial protection can be applied to the bulk of New Zealand’s oceans”. “This commitment is an exciting step toward meeting global goals to safeguard at least 30 percent of the ocean through fully protected marine reserves”.
“In June this year we jointly sponsored a resolution at the United Nations to advance ocean protection in the high seas, and we continue to advocate for a Marine Protected Area in the Ross Sea”, Dr Smith says.
Nautilus is one of many natural resource firms, including U.S.-based Neptune Minerals, U.S.-listed Odyssey Marine Exploration, Singapore-based OMS and New Zealand’s Trans-Tasman Resources, racing to mine the ocean floor.
“Officials consider that the remaining application outside the sanctuary is prospective and offers an attractive investment opportunity”, the paper said.
In making the announcement, New Zealand is expanding a smaller reserve established in 1990, as a release noted.
“We congratulate the government for taking decisive action to protect this incredibly special area from mining and fishing”, WWF New Zealand chief executive Chris Howe said. That’s in line with existing legislation, and “those fishers now operating in FMA10 (the Kermadec Fisheries Management Area) target EEZ-wide HMS (highly migratory species) stocks that can be taken effectively in other areas”.