Sanctuary celebrated on Pitcairn

PITCAIRN – Pitcairn Islanders and conservationist worldwide are celebrating the establishment of 830,000 square kilometres of marine reserve around the remote Pacific island.

The islanders raised a flag on Pitcairn on Friday to mark the waters’ protected status after five years of campaigning alongside the environmental agency Pew Charitable Trusts.

The British High Commissioner to New Zealand and Pitcairn’s Governor Jonathan Sinclair said the reserve is the second largest marine protected area in the world.

He said only Pitcairn Islanders will be allowed to fish for their own needs, seabed mining is banned and it will be patrolled by high-tech surveillance and satellite tracking.

Sinclair said it is hoped the reserve will boost ecotourism on Pitcairn.

The vast ocean expanse around Pitcairn, Henderson, Oeno and Ducie islands is now a fully protected marine reserve.

Over 1200 marine species have been recorded around Pitcairn, including whales and dolphins, 365 species of fish, turtles, seabirds and corals.

The reserve also protects one of the two remaining raised coral atolls on the planet as well as 40-Mile Reef, the deepest and most well-developed coral reef known in the world.

With the designation of the marine reserve, Pitcairn’s waters will become protected from overfishing and illegal pirate fishing, as well as deep-sea mining exploration, giving these seas more resilience to pollution and climate change.

A survey of the waters around the islands shows they are not particularly productive in terms of the high-value pelagic species. Tuna fishing, for example, takes place well to the north.

But there is concern that if illegal operations do move into the immediate waters around the Pitcairns, they could decimate the marine life that does exist there very rapidly.

The waters’ main claim to special status is really their pristine nature.

- PNC sources