BANGKOK - The Marshall Islands has designated coral rich waters around two of its remotest Pacific Ocean atolls as a marine sanctuary, hoping to protect an 18,500 square mile (48,000 square kilometer) expanse that an expert says is a window into untouched ocean conditions of a millennium ago.
The seas around the uninhabited Bikar and Bokak atolls are the Marshall Islands first marine sanctuary, its government said this week. The atolls harbor colonies of seabirds and green turtles and the most outstanding coral reefs in the central and western Pacific.
National Geographic and Marshall Islands marine officials studied the atolls during a 2023 expedition that with hundreds of dives and a submersible documented prolific sea life to depths of 2,340 meters (7,677 feet).
“Bikar and Bokak’s coral reefs are a time machine, like diving in the ocean of 1,000 years ago,” said Enric Sala, the director of National Geographic’s Pristine Seas project.
“In these remote atolls, we saw the healthiest coral, giant clam, and reef fish populations in the central and western Pacific,” he said in a statement. “They are our best baselines for what the ocean could look like if we truly let it be.”
Bikini Atoll, rendered uninhabitable by U.S. nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s, was also studied by Pristine Seas to help the Marshall Islands establish its first long-term monitoring sites.
The researchers didn’t give details about the state of Bikini’s environment. They said they had provided a scientific report covering all the studied atolls to the Marshall Islands government and that “Bikar and Bokak stand in contrast to Bikini Atoll.”
The Marshall Islands government said creation of the Bikar and Bokak sanctuary is part of its effort to meet national and international commitments for ocean conservation.
The country of some 40,000 people halfway between Australia and Hawaii last year outlined a plan requiring billions of dollars to fortify its most populated atolls against projected sea-level rise this century.
“The sanctuary will fully protect these areas from fishing and other destructive activities, ensuring the preservation of crucial ecosystems,” the government said in a statement.
Marine sanctuaries are promoted by conservationists as a way to protect the overall resilience of oceans as they help replenish adjacent fish populations and also provide non-destructive economic opportunities.
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said the country’s economy, social stability and culture would collapse without a healthy ocean.
“The only way to continue benefiting from the ocean’s treasures is to protect it,” she said.
Significant expanses of the Pacific Ocean are protected areas including U.S. national marine parks that were expanded under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Protecting sanctuaries from illegal fishing and exploitation is a challenge for Pacific island countries, which due to their small economies lack the heft to effectively police exclusive economic zones that span enormous areas of ocean.
Niue, a Pacific coral atoll home to 1,700 people, said in 2021 it would sell sponsorships to square kilometer patches of sea to raise money to protect its pristine ocean territory.
National Geographic said the Bikar and Bokak expedition also found vulnerable fish species such as large groupers, Napoleon wrasse and bumphead parrotfish and potentially new species of fish and invertebrates. Deep-sea sharks were also abundant, it said.
Edited by RFA Staff.