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Marine Protected Areas

Second edition - Written by Erich Hoyt, published by Earthscan

Erich Hoyt has presented a complete guide to the Marine Protection Areas of the world, all 740 of them. Each MPA has a description, and paragraph or two on the wildlife you might expect to find there, information on why it was created and its current status. This is not a field guide, but a book for wildlife and conservation professionals, students and keen enthusiasts, and also mariners, sailors and seamen.

Read more about the the protection of the world's seas and oceans.

RRP£39.99 - Special offer - Buy this book from Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and receive a free poster of the world's Marine Protected Areas. Or to buy from Amazon, click Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises.

To celebrate the book's publication, Erich Hoyt and WDCS have produced a colour world map poster showing all 740 proposed and existing areas for cetaceans worldwide in the waters of 125 countries and on the high seas, with illustrations by Pieter Folkens and cartography by Lesley Frampton with the assistance of Calvin Frampton. The poster is available in A1 (594x 841mm) or A0 (841 x 1189mm) size or for free download.

FACTS AT A GLANCE

Research shows that although whales travel great distances across the sea, some of them migrating up to 10,000 km a year, they still return to specific places to breed and feed. These are their ‘homes in the sea'. (P40)
64 per cent of the world ocean, and most whale habitat, is on the high seas, outside of the jurisdiction of countries, yet there are only a handful of protected areas here. Without protection, this huge area of ocean will be heavily exploited in the next few years. (p94-99).
Climate change is causing or is expected to cause a rise in sea level and temperature; changes in ocean salinity, acidity and circulation patterns; more storms and chaotic weather patterns. For whales and dolphins, climate change means that habitats that were once considered ‘home' may change beyond recognition. Climate change alone may not lead to habitat loss, but combined with other factors, it could lead to decline or extinction of populations, even, in some cases, species. (P79-81).
The general public tends to think that whales have been ‘saved'. More than one third of the whale species targeted by whalers are still on the IUCN Red List as endangered species. The truth is that whales will not be ‘saved' until we can save their habitats. (P39-41)

MORE FACTS

The high seas has been criss-crossed by mariners since the time of the Vikings, yet the miles of ocean beneath them, and the life living in the ocean depths, remain the last expansive mare incognita of Earth. In terms of conservation, the high seas remain as unprotected as they are unknown. In late 2010, the First Census of Marine Life (COML) announced the results of ten years of work to uncover marine biodiversity (www.coml.org). The project has added 1330 new species to round out the total approaching 250,000 marine species now known, including more than 5000 awaiting formal description (Ausubel et al, 2010) - impressive; but this hardly makes a dent in the total estimated marine diversity of at least 1 million marine species. At the current rate of discovery, it would take 5639 more years to catalogue all marine species if, indeed, there are only 1 million - taking us midway through the 77th century (the year 7650). (P2, 94).
Nearly a quarter (22 per cent) of all 87 whale and dolphin species carry an endangered or vulnerable rating while more than half (52 per cent) have the status ‘data deficient'. Thus, about three-quarters of all whales and dolphins qualify on a precautionary basis for habitat protection on the basis of their IUCN Red List status alone. (P39-40).

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