United States, world leader in MPAs

The United States leads the world in total marine protected area, with several of the worlds largest MPAs. Despite these major achievements, 74% of US territorial waters remain unprotected. "The good news is that 26% of US oceans are already protected by MPAs, a long way towards the goal of protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 . . . The bad news is that 96% of all US MPA area and 99% of fully and highly protected areas that yield real conservation benefits are concentrated in the central Pacific in a group of large marine monuments designated first by President George Bush in 2006 and 2009 and then expanded by President Obama in 2014 and 2016. Thus, almost all of our marine conservation ‘eggs’ are in one huge Pacific basket . . . Thus the MPAs that are effective at mitigating climate change and preventing loss of species are almost all in one place. Vast areas of our ocean on the East and West coasts and the Gulf of Mexico are hardly protected at all . . . To really tackle the impacts of climate change on oceans, protect species, and provide ocean access to underserved populations... well protected MPAs must be located across different representative marine ecosystems on those coasts where the majority of US population and important marine life live."