JULY
|
FROM THE EDITOR
BY SUSAN GOLDBERG PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE
Preserving Earth’s
Undersea Treasures
PRISTINE SEAS
In 2018 National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala led
a Pristine Seas diving expedition at Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
The expedition’s research laid the scientific groundwork for setting
aside a protected marine park there.
ENRIC SALA has made it his mission to
save wildlife and habitat. In the past
10 years alone, thanks to his efforts
and partnerships with governments
around the world, an area half the size
of Canada has been protected from all
manner of human exploitation.
The reserves that marine ecologist
Sala has helped establish aren’t on land
but in the oceans. His Pristine Seas
project, sponsored by the National Geo-
graphic Society, has been instrumental
in getting more than two million square
miles set aside—keeping untouched
wild areas healthy and giving depleted
ones a chance to recover.
Sala’s article this month recounts
how Pristine Seas lent support to the
creation of a protected marine park at
the tip of Argentina. It’s next to waters
that Chile designated as a park, and
Sala believes it’s the largest contigu-
ous transboundary protected ocean
area in the world. Yet it’s not nearly
enough. “Five percent of the ocean is
protected,” he told me during a recent
visit. “Science says half the ocean must
be protected to make a real difference.”
Of all the reserves he’s worked on, I
asked Sala, which one does he like the
best? “That’s like asking which of your
sons or daughters you love the most,”
he complained. But, he conceded,
“there is one place: the Southern Line
Islands, the most pristine archipelago
in the Pacific. There, in 2016, we saw
the greatest El Niño year ever, and half
the corals bleached and died.”
His team’s going back this year to see
if the area has recovered. If it has, he
says, “it will give us hope”—an essential
commodity as Sala and his collabora-
tors press on to protect more ocean life.
Thank you for reading National
Geographic. j
‘FIVE PERCENT OF THE
OCEAN IS PROTECTED.
SCIENCE SAYS HALF
THE OCEAN MUST BE
PROTECTED TO MAKE
A REAL DIFFERENCE.’