World’s remotest island creates marine zone to protect sea wildlife

Tristan da Cunha bans fishing to secure future of critically endangered species

A pair of elephant seals on the island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic. Tristan da Cunha, an island with 245 permanent residents, has created a marine protection zone to safeguard wildlife in an area of the South Atlantic three times the size of the United Kingdom. (Andy Schofield/Pew Charitable Trust via AP)
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Tristan da Cunha, an island with 245 permanent residents, is creating a marine protection zone to safeguard endangered rockhopper penguins, yellow-nosed albatross and other wildlife in an area of the South Atlantic three times the size of the United Kingdom.

The government of the British overseas territory, which calls itself the most remote inhabited island on Earth, said that fishing and other “extractive activities” will be banned from 627,247 square kilometres of ocean around Tristan da Cunha and the archipelago’s three other major islands.

The sanctuary will be the biggest “no-take zone” in the Atlantic Ocean and the fourth biggest anywhere in the world, protecting fish that live in the waters and tens of millions of seabirds that feed on them, the territory said.

The isolated area, roughly equidistant between South Africa and Argentina, supports 85 per cent of the world’s endangered northern rockhopper penguins, 11 species of whales and dolphins, and most of the world’s sub-Antarctic fur seals, according to the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project.

“Our life on Tristan da Cunha has always been based around our relationship with the sea, and that continues today,” James Glass, the territory’s chief islander, said. “That’s why we’re fully protecting 90 per cent of our waters, and we’re proud that we can play a key role in preserving the health of the oceans.”

The protection zone will become part of the UK’s Blue Belt Programme, which is providing £27 million ($35.5m) to promote marine conservation in the country’s overseas territories.

The initiative has now protected 11.1 million square kilometres of marine environment, or 1 per cent of the world’s oceans, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said.

The waters around Tristan da Cunha serve as a feeding ground for the yellow-nosed and the Tristan albatross, both classed as critically endangered.

The islands are also home to several species of land birds that live nowhere else, including the Wilkins bunting, the UK’s rarest bird, and the Inaccessible rail, the world’s smallest flightless bird, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

The territory includes four main islands, the largest of which is Tristan da Cunha, located 2,810 kilometres west of Cape Town, South Africa. It was discovered by the Dutch in 1643.

Britain took possession of Tristan da Cunha 1816, establishing the territory’s first permanent settlement. People were evacuated from the island after a volcanic eruption in 1961, but they returned in 1963.

The territory’s most important source of income is commercial fishing for crayfish, known as the Tristan rock lobster, which is sold as a luxury product in the US, Europe, Japan and China.

“This small community is responsible for one of the biggest conservation achievements of 2020,” said Beccy Speight, chief executive of the RSPB. “This will protect one of the most pristine marine environments on the planet.”