Marine Protected Areas

Investigating the best and worst practices of Marine Protected areas, and how they can be improved and used as a powerful tool for conservation

35%

OF SALT MARSHES

have been degraded or lost worldwide

30%

50%

29%

89%

OF MANGROVES

OF CORAL REEFS

OF SEA GRASSES

OF OYSTER REEFS

Protecting the Sahul Banks

In 2024 we travelled across the Timor sea to dive the Sahul Banks, an offshore reef system 400 kms from Australia and 200 kms from Timor-Leste.

We filmed incredible coral animals - one 40 metres across - and huge sponges and reef fish. But we saw no commercial species, large fish or sharks because, above us, the illegal boats operated with impunity.

We are aiming to return to the Sahul Banks this October to find evidence that its a nursery area and make the case to the Timor-Leste government to protect 5,000 square kilometres of this jewel in the middle of the ocean.

MPA Creation & Enforcement

How many 'paper parks' are there?

There has been a huge explosion in MPA's - 18% of Coastal waters are protected in law. But in reality the levels of protect remain patchy.

So-called 'paper parks' - areas with little actual implementation of environmental management or protection measures - abound. This can stem from bad design, lack of funds and capacity, governance issues, or from weak regulations and lack of enforcement.

A 2020 report by NGO Oceana revealed that many European Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) function as "paper parks," offering minimal real protection. Of the 3,449 Natura 2000 MPAs assessed, 96% allowed destructive activities inside their boundaries and 86% were impacted by damaging fishing gear. The situation can be worse in areas with lower levels of funding for governance and enforcement.

We have been documenting MPA's since 2009. We are now starting a project that measures the efficacy of MPA's across a number of key criteria (Using standardised metrics) and will be revisiting all the MPA's we have documented over the last 17 years to measure progress, and if there hasn't been any, then find out why.

That journey will form a documentary film and report, and also allow us to design Tahi Opu & Blue Shield solutions for those MPA's that are most in need.

Global MPA Analysis