EXPLORING THE DEPTHS OF MARINE PROTECTIONS A Case Study: Bajos del Norte National Park

Oceana is winning marine habitat protections all around the world.

317,678 square miles protected in South America

1,032,359 square miles protected off the U.S. West Coast

2,342,321 square miles protected in European waters

Nearly 4 million square miles of marine habitat protections worldwide.

These are not just 2-dimensional shapes over empty areas of ocean. To truly understand these protections we have to look below the water's surface. There, we see breathtaking landscapes: mountain ranges, canyons, steppes, and vast ocean valleys.

Mount Everest is impressive, but its 29,029 feet would be in the shadow of mount Mauna Kea in Hawaii, which rises 33,500 feet from the sea floor.

Just as the Serengeti is home to vast herds of grazing animals, seagrass beds in the ocean form the basis of rich, biodiverse ecosystems.

The ocean has forests too! Temperate rainforests in the Pacific Northwest of North America have counterparts below the waves. Kelp forests provide habitat where fishes and sea lions dart among their fronds, and sea otters dive for urchin at their roots.

Another example is an area we recently safeguarded in the Gulf of Mexico: Bajos del Norte National Park. Play the video and you can see that much like the tropical forests sitting atop the massive cliffs of Canaima National Park in Venezuela, these bountiful and diverse coral reefs are perched near the edge of the continental shelf as it drops into the vast abyssal plain of the Gulf of Mexico.

BAJOS DEL NORTE NATIONAL PARK

This Marine Protected Area (MPA) is more than 5,000 square miles—that’s more than the equivalent of 10 Grand Teton National Parks!

The protections include a no-take zone of nearly 2,000 square miles, and no mining, oil exploration, or other industrial activities are allowed throughout the remainder of the MPA.

A circular 2,000 square mile no-take zone within the national park protects the entire water column

Many ocean protections extend from the seafloor to the ocean's surface. So protections in no-take zones like the one in Bajos del Norte National Park, can actually be measured in cubic miles! This means every living thing in the water column is safe from human activity.

Many iconic and commercially important species depend on this area as a critical migratory route, as well as vital feeding and spawning grounds.

The leatherback sea turtle is the largest living turtle on the planet, reaching weights of up to 1,000 pounds. Throughout its lifetime, a leatherback may cross the ocean several times, traveling to and from preferred feeding or nesting sites.

Red grouper are commercially important fish but also play an important role in turning over and exposing surfaces in coral reefs, which attracts a diverse array of species including corals and sponges, and also other invertebrates and fish.

At up to 40 feet long, the whale shark is the largest fish in the world. Whale sharks are highly migratory, and it is thought that their movement is associated with abundance of food in the area. Whale sharks are an endangered species and are vulnerable to being caught as bycatch in nets, as well as being fished for their meat and fins.

These protections have impacts far beyond the borders of the MPA. This area is where millions of fishes, octopus, and lobster spawn and grow. These are important species for 3,600 local fishers and their communities in the Yucatán region.

Oceana conducted scientific expeditions in the region, worked with local artisanal fishers, and deployed strategic communications and lobbying efforts to secure this MPA. With this victory, Oceana has helped establish the largest protected area in the Gulf of Mexico.

And we're just getting started! Oceana will continue to campaign for new and well-managed habitat protections in Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the European Union, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

So the next time you look at the surface of the ocean, as beautiful as it is...

...remember that underneath is a world much like the one we live in: with canyons, mountains, forests, and grasslands, home to rich abundance and biodiversity.

These places deserve our wonder, and our care.