Marine protected areas are large swaths of coastal seas or open ocean that are protected by governments from activities such as commercial fishing and mining.
Marine protected areas are large swaths of coastal seas or open ocean that are protected by governments from activities such as commercial fishing and mining. Such marine sanctuaries have had rehabilitating effects on at-risk species living within their borders. But it’s been less clear how they benefit highly migratory species such as tuna.
Now researchers at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have found evidence that tuna are spawning in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), one of the largest marine protected areas in the world, covering an area of the central Pacific as large as Argentina.
The researchers observed multiple species of tuna larvae throughout this protected expanse, suggesting that several migratory species are using these protected waters as a reproductive stopover, over several consecutive years, and even during a particularly strong El Niño season, where PIPA may have provided a critical refuge.
Read more at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
