Parks & Reserves: Brazil Marine Protected Areas Project

"Brazil will soon have four vast marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Atlantic Ocean, covering an area of more than 920,000 square kilometers (355,200 square miles). The new designation will increase the coverage of Brazilian MPAs from 1.5 percent to about 24.5 percent of the country’s waters, exceeding the international target of protecting at least 10 percent of marine areas by 2020. All four MPAs, created far away from the Brazilian coast, will protect remote sets of islands . . . These remote archipelagos are home to a vast range of threatened and endemic species, including the critically endangered Atlantic goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) and the endangered scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini). The waters off the islands also hold a rich diversity of algae, corals, fish, sharks, rays, octopus, whales, dolphins and turtles."