Blog Archives

Dr. Sylvia Earle Celebrates Expanded Marine Protected Area in the Galápagos Islands Hope Spot

By Avrah Sellar, Mission Blue

Today, January 14th, 2022, the President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, signed an official decree enhancing the marine protected area (MPA) around the Galápagos Archipelago in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. The decree will expand protections by 60,000 square kilometers (23,166 square miles); half of which will be fully protected where no extractive activities are allowed. The new protected area known as La Hermandad, “the sisterhood,” will extend to the maritime border of Costa Rica offering an opportunity for multi-national cooperation to manage marine life like sharks, sea turtles and whales which migrate across countries waters.
 
 
Present at the ceremony was Dr. Sylvia Earle and Max Bello, Global Ocean Policy Advisor for Mission Blue, who attended at the invitation of the President.…

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Champions Celebrate Successful Clean-Up Campaign at the Cagarras Islands and Surrounding Waters Hope Spot

By Aline Aguiar, Hope Spot Champion
In a recent beach clean-up campaign in Brazil from November 15th – December 12th, 2021, more than 1,000 participants collected 110lbs (50kg) of trash and brought 529lbs (240kg) of glass and electronic waste to reuse and recycle. 

The Cagarras Islands and Surrounding Waters Hope Spot encompasses a special insular ecosystem on the Brazilian metropolitan waters: the Cagarras Islands Natural Monument. This extraordinary place is a relevant haven for biodiversity, harboring hundreds of species, including rare, endemic, threatened, and even new species that science has not yet described. The marine protected area (MPA) preserves one of the largest nesting grounds of the South Atlantic for frigate birds and brown boobies. One can also spot sea turtles, dolphins, and whales on the surrounding waters.…

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Mission Blue Welcomes Dona Bertarelli to its Board of Directors

(Image © Julius Schlosburg)
Led by legendary oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, Mission Blue unites a global coalition to inspire support for a worldwide network of marine protected areas – Hope Spots, with the goal of reaching at least 30% ocean protection by 2030. Today, we are delighted to welcome philanthropist, ocean advocate and sportswoman, Dona Bertarelli to our board of directors and to the Mission Blue family.
Ms. Bertarelli is a world-renowned expert in ocean conservation who has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to ocean stewardship from a variety of perspectives. She is co-chair of the Bertarelli Foundation, and joined forces with the Pew Charitable Trusts in 2017, continuing their long-term collaboration and forming a new partnership, Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, to advance ocean protection, perfectly aligning with the goals of Mission Blue. …

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Costa Rica Adds Nearly 53,000 sq km of Protected Waters to the Cocos Island National Park

On Friday, December 17th, 2021, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, President of Costa Rica, and Andrea Meza, Minister of Environment and Energy, signed a decree expanding the Cocos Island National Park, which lies at the heart of the Cocos Island Hope Spot. This move adds approximately 53,000 sq km (21,235 sq miles) of fully protected waters to Costa Rica’s territory in the Pacific Ocean, making the total size approximately 55,000 sq km. 
 
 
This area of the Eastern Tropical Pacific hosts myriad endangered or threatened marine species like the scalloped hammerhead, which, like many other animals, uses the waters between Cocos Island and the Galápagos Islands as a migratory “swimway.” Marine animals, much like terrestrial animals, do not stay in one place.…

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Scientists Detected the First Documented Journey of Scalloped Hammerhead Shark from Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica to Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

Spanish version below.
A scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) travels more than 1,200 km from Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica’s South Pacific, to the iconic Darwin Arch in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Evidence of connectivity between a coastal nursery area and an essential ocean habitat thanks to a collaborative tagging effort.

By Alex Hearn, President of Migramar and Champion of the Galapagos Islands Hope Spot and the Cocos-Galapagos Swimway Hope Spot
DECEMBER 3, 2021 – Like the jaguars that inhabit the tropical rainforests of different Central American countries, scalloped hammerhead sharks transit through large marine areas of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. Such is the case of “Banco”, a male scalloped hammerhead shark tagged at the Golfo Dulce Shark Sanctuary in southern Costa Rica in August 2017 that was detected 1,200 km at the Galapagos Marine Reserve in
Ecuador four years later in March 2021.…

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Hope in the Conflict Islands

Photo: Conflict Islands Conservation Initiative
By Hayley Versace, General Manager, Conflict Islands Resort and Conflict Islands Hope Spot Champion

The Conflict Islands are one of just two Hope Spots in Papua New Guinea. The Conflict Islands are a privately owned atoll 22 kms by 14 kms wide in the center of a richly biodiverse marine ecosystem. This atoll is connected to several other Hope Spots in the region through the many migratory species that mate, raise their young and feed in these waters.
 
 
The conservation work by Conflict Islands Conservation Initiative (CICI), an Australian not-for-profit, has evolved thanks to our growing network of partners and supporters from all over the world, stemming from the support we have had from Mission Blue and Dr.…

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Laamafaru Festival 2021 Celebrates Ocean Conservation at Laamu Atoll Hope Spot

By Leanna Crowley, Marketing Communications Manager, Six Senses Laamu Resort

Since 2016, the Maldives Underwater Initiative (MUI) by Six Senses Laamu has organized a community festival in Laamu Atoll with the aim of raising awareness of and increasing protection for sea turtles. The Laamu Turtle Festival brought people from across the atoll together to pledge ‘Turtles in Laamu – Safe and Protected’. In 2019, MUI recognized the growing need to raise awareness about the conservation of entire marine ecosystems and the services they provide, in order to safeguard the Maldives from the negative effects of climate change or unsustainable practices. That is why, in 2019, the resort and local stakeholders in Laamu Atoll voted to broaden the scope of the 4th annual festival to Laamafaru Festival, or ‘Laamu’s Reefs Festival’ in Dhivehi, under the theme ‘Our Ocean – Safe and Protected’.…

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From Hope Spot to Marine Protected Area: A Conservation Win for Western Australia

Photo: Jason Dickie, Oceanwise Australia

WESTERN AUSTRALIA (December 3rd, 2021)
Beginning with his work in the Ningaloo Reef in 1998, Dr. Ben Fitzpatrick of Oceanwise Australia has contributed to research, management, and conservation of marine and coastal ecosystems for more than two decades. As the Champion of the Exmouth Gulf and Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area Hope Spot established in 2019, he and his team have helped shift the local momentum from industrialization to protection for Exmouth Gulf and the surrounding area.
Today the Government of Western Australia has announced a commitment to implement a spatial management plan for a new Marine Park in the area in congruence with the Plan for Our Parks policy. According to the official government release, “A new marine park will be established for the eastern and southern parts of the [Exmouth] Gulf, and Class A reserves will be gazetted for local areas of significance such as Qualing Pool, Camerons Cave and the Gulf’s islands.”…

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New Hope Spot Designated in the Eastern Pacific Ocean Celebrates New Marine Conservation Center and Highlights Need for MPA

Header image: Carlos Mallo
OSA PENINSULA, COSTA RICA (December 2nd, 2021)

Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula is one of the most visited places in the country and is well-loved among naturalists and photographers. National Geographic has described this marine ecosystem as “the most biologically intense place on Earth”. Costa Rica’s waters here are traversed by creatures like humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarran), sea turtles (Chelonioidea) and rays (Mobula birostris). This marine corridor encompasses a diverse cluster of ecosystems that are all essential for the survival of marine life, including the coral reefs of Caño Island and one of the largest wetlands of the Pacific coast of Central America. Unfortunately, it is also a place that has felt the impacts of industrial fishing – problems that could be mitigated through an expanded marine protected area (MPA) that encompasses the existing MPAs in the area.…

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Ancestors of Whale Sharks in Panama May Come from Distant Waters

Genetic population connectivity study of the endangered whale shark in Pacific Panama provides important data for conservation efforts.
By Leila Nilipour, photos by Candy K. Real
Spanish translation below.

The world’s largest fish, the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), is a plankton-loving giant that can be found alone or in groups in all tropical oceans. However, despite being a highly migratory species, little is known about how the different populations worldwide interact with each other. This lack of knowledge hinders conservation efforts aimed at protecting this endangered animal. Héctor Guzmán, a marine biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, alongside Caitlin Beaver of the US Geological Survey and Edgardo Díaz-Ferguson of Coiba Scientific Station, set out to start bridging this knowledge gap.…

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