Banning industrial fishing in an area twice the size of the UK, Great Britain is creating the world’s largest marine reserve in the Indian Ocean.
The 545,000-sq-km reserve, or Marine Protected Area (MPA), around the Chagos Islands, regarded as one of the world’s richest marine ecosystems, hosts the world’s biggest living coral structure, the Great Chagos Bank. The bank is home to more than 220 coral species, almost half the recorded species of the entire Indian Ocean, and more than 1,000 species of reef fish.
“Its establishment will double the global coverage of the world’s oceans under protection,” Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband pointed out, dubbing it “a major step forward for protecting the oceans”.
Environmentalists lauded the decision as “inspirational”.
“It will protect a treasure trove of tropical, marine wildlife for posterity and create a safe haven for breeding fish stocks for the benefit of people in the region”, William Marsden, chairman of the Chagos Conservation Trust, told BBC.
Less happy islanders, who were evicted in 1967-71 to make way for the US air base on the island of Diego Garcia, however said a reserve would effectively bar them from returning.
The Chagos Islands have belonged to Britain since the Napoleon wars, but Mauritius has lately asserted a claim to sovereignty, as well.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband now instructs the Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory to declare a Marine Protected Area.
According to environmentalists, an MPA designation would prohibit activities such as industrial fishing and deep-sea mining.