The Pew Environment Group has commended UK Foreign Minister David Miliband for designating the Chagos Islands, a group of 55 islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, as the world’s largest marine reserve.
The islands and their surrounding waters cover 210,000 square miles (544,000 square kilometres), an area larger than California and more than 60 times the size of Yellowstone Park.
As a fully protected marine reserve, the rich diversity of marine life found in the Chagos will now be safeguarded from extractive activities, such as industrial fishing.
The Pew Environment Group assembled leading conservation and scientific organisations to advocate for the establishment of a large no-take marine reserve for the Chagos. Groups in support of the designation include the Chagos Conservation Trust, the Linnean Society of London, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Marine Conservation Society, the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Read the complete story at World Fishing.