A point of growth

The recent study has shown that the development of marine protected areas (MPAs) contributes to the restoration of marine animal and fish populations, and is also an effective stimulus for the economic growth.

Recently, King of New Zealand’s indigenous Maori (Māori) people Tūheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero VII said that whales should to be given inherent human rights. He advocated recognizing marine mammals as humans and granting them legal status, legal personality. The key message of this seemingly strange news was the desire to protect these powerful and majestic but very vulnerable mammals and save their population from extinction.

The Declaration of the Sea submitted by the chiefs of the Polynesian chiefdoms contains a number of practical proposals, for example, that the animals need a healthy habitat to restore the whale population, provided that they remain free to move. The indigenous peoples of New Zealand consider the creation of a marine protected area (MPA) for whales as the most optimal solution.

For reference, a marine protected area is a region of the world’s seas, oceans, estuaries, or Great Lakes (in the United States) that provides protection for all or part of the natural resources inhabiting it. Within MPAs, specific activities are restricted or prohibited to achieve specific objectives related to the habitat conservation and protection, as well as monitoring the ecosystem and managing the fisheries. MPAs do not necessarily forbidden fishing, research or other human activities; on the contrary, many MPAs are multi-use areas. Therefore, marine protected areas include wildlife reserves, marine parks, and even research centers.         

Many researches have been carried out to study the effectiveness of MPAs, and they generally showed that the functioning of sea national parks could contribute to the restoration of fish populations by 500 percent.

A new study led by Mark John Costello, Professor at the Faculty of Biosciences and Aquaculture of Nord University, Norway, and published in the Scientia Marina journal found out that ocean conservation could bring significant economic benefits to fishing and tourism industries, with economic benefits estimated at billions of dollars in profits. The scientist’s analysis examined 200 previously published studies of 51 marine protected areas in 30 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The MPAs analyzed during the study consist of a variety of ecosystems, including coral reefs, kelp forests, mangroves, rocky reefs, salt marshes, mudflats, and sandy or muck sea bottom habitats.

“For far too long, marine parks have been overlooked as GDP generators and job creators,” says the study’s author. “This study offers the strongest evidence that protecting the ocean replenishes it with abundant fish, protects it against climate change, and boosts local and national economies.”

Costello estimates that well-designed marine protected areas are considered one of the most effective tools for protecting the biodiversity and conserving the threatened species, although to date, only 3 percent of marine and water bodies have been designated as fully protected areas. In his study, Costello examined statistical data and concluded that MPAs did not pose any loss or cost to fisheries, but, on the contrary, the industry could be added to the list of ocean protection beneficiaries.

Thus, benefits to fisheries operating in areas adjacent to protected areas were observed in 46 MPAs analyzed, i.e. in 90 percent of cases. An increase in commercial catch (76 percent), as well as fish body size (25 percent), and even surpluses were detected in 16 percent. “Fisheries close to the MPAs had up to 45 times higher catch per unit effort (CPUE),” the analysis said. In one of the case studies by Costello, fish size was 34 percent bigger on average and depositing eggs was enhanced showing no decreasing trend up to 40 km away, according to the study.

And, of course, the functioning of marine protected areas can bring considerable benefits from a tourism point of view. Coral reefs, mangroves and marine ecosystems are of the greatest interest for tourists. “The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia, generated $6.4 bn, and others generated hundreds of millions, such as the Galapagos Marine Reserve, Ecuador, Mu Ko Phi Phi Marine National Park, Thailand, and Ras Mohammed National Park, the Red Sea, Egypt,” says Costello. Revenues can be generated from the sale of entrance tickets and scuba diving, with the older MPAs providing higher overall income. Examples of economic benefits were found in 24 tropical and subtropical countries, as well as temperate regions such as France, Spain, Italy and New Zealand.

Ras Mohammed National Park in Egypt

The Ras Mohammed National Park is located on the Sinai Peninsula, about 25 km from the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. An easy-to-miss road leads to it from the highway. Looking at the rather dull landscape of the desert with rocky inclusions stretching to the horizon, it is difficult to imagine that this area is part of a protected reserve. A guard of the Ras Mohammed National Park says that in winter, the reserve is one of the main places for migratory birds and several dozen bird species normally spend the winter season in the park, including those classified as rare and endangered. One of these birds is the white stork. Foxes, gazelles, and reptiles also inhabit this area.

In Ras Mohammed National Park, the most colorful and attractive things are hidden from curious people. The mangroves located at a considerable distance from the entrance to the National Park serve as a secluded and safe place for breeding bird offspring.

But the most interesting things in the Ras Mohammed Park Park are under water, and the area of 345 sq. km out of 480 sq. km of the total area of the park is under water. The most picturesque places of the Red Sea are located deep in the sea, with stunning coral reefs extending hundreds of meters down (there are about 150 species there) and unique marine inhabitants. There are reasons that the southern part of the Ras Mohammed National Park is among the Top 10 places in the world for scuba diving. In the reserve, tourists can see 2 bn year old coral reefs rising above sea level in natural conditions. There are also geological faults in the Earth caused by earthquakes. The amazing Salt Lake, another miracle of the Ras Muhammad National Park, deserves special attention. The water in it is twice as salty as sea water due to unique salty springs, and its composition is similar to the water of the Dead Sea. It is believed that it has a curative effect on a human body.

The reserve on the Saadiyat Island in the UAE

Located in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the Saadiyat Island (translated from Arabic as the ‘Island of Happiness’) is among the ‘pearls’ of the resort areas in the UAE. This natural island stretching on an area of more than 2,500 hectares has the status of a national reserve. It is connected to the center of Abu Dhabi by 7 bridges; it takes tourists and locals just 7 minutes to get there from the center of the Emirate. Thanks to its snow-white beaches and endless expanses of sparkling turquoise water of the Persian Gulf, the Saadiyat Island is often called the Arabian Maldives. The most famous Saadiyat Beach is 8.5 km long.

The pride of the Saadiyat Nature Reserve is the Caretta sea turtles that can be watched directly on the beaches during the nesting period. And the dugongs, or sea cows, are of special interest and value in the reserve as they were on the verge of complete extinction due to mass hunting them until the 20th century. There are no other modern representatives of these animals left, and to prevent dugongs from suffering the fate of the Steller’s sea cows that disappeared several centuries ago, the Emirates has been implementing a large-scale program since 2018 to save their dugongs.

Translated from Malay, a ‘dugong’ means a ‘sea maiden’ (mermaid). They are calm and peaceful animals having bodies of a ‘good streamline shape’ and strong muscles. Their weight can be up to 500 kg and they can be 3 meters long. Dugongs prefer shallow water (2 to 8 meters), especially in coastal areas. Apparently, that’s why they turned out to be attractive to sea hunters. These unusual marine animals are preserved only in the tropical zone of the Indian and Pacific Oceans - from the Red Sea along the eastern coast of Africa, in the Persian Gulf, off the northeastern coast of India, near the Malay Peninsula, Northern Australia and New Guinea, as well as off the coast of a number of the Pacific islands. The dugong population in the Persian Gulf is second to the population of these animals in the Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait, which numbers over 10 thousand animals.

What conclusions can be made from recent research on marine protected areas? Right now, only about 8 percent of the world’s oceans is protected, falling short of the global goal of 30 percent. “The ocean is under threat from us. Science shows that establishing national parks at sea will help ocean life to bounce back - and provide more benefits to humanity,” said Enric Sala, founder of the National Geographic Pristine Seas journal and author of the award-winning book The Nature of Nature. Outdated misconceptions about the economic impact of marine protected areas are blocking progress on the world’s urgent conservation goal. Perhaps, new approaches to assessing the advantages of developing marine protected areas can allow people to look at this issue from a different angle that will be beneficial for preserving and enhancing the richest biodiversity of the Earth, as well as for improving the human economic activity, which will be of benefit and do no harm.