I forward this article to the list because it is the most significant
effort to protect marine biodiversity for quite a while.  This very
large marine wilderness preserve is one of the world's most untouched
ecosystems, and to see it protected from "development" (code word for
various degrees of destruction, when it comes to natural places) and
exploitation is truly a great thing!

From a very colorful place,
Ross R.

Australia maps out world's largest marine reserve

   Thursday, October 10, 2002
   By Belinda Goldsmith, Reuters


   CANBERRA — Australia plans to create the world's largest fully
protected marine reserve,
   announcing on Wednesday it had mapped out a giant park free of
fishing and exploitation in
   its remote, sub-Antarctic waters.

   The government said the new 6.5-million-hectare (16-million-acre)
reserve would be created
   around the rugged Heard Island and McDonald Islands group, 4,500 km
(2,790 miles)
   southwest of the mainland and 1,000 km (620 miles) north of
Antarctica.

   The Australian territory of Heard and McDonald islands is the only
sub-Antarctic island group
   with an intact ecosystem that has not been tainted by foreign species
introduced directly by
   man.

   "The declaration would preserve for science and for nature a very
large area of one of the
   most pristine environments left on Earth," Environment Minister David
Kemp said in a
   statement, finalizing two years of work to tighten up protection of
the area.

   The size of the park surpasses another Australian marine reserve, the 5.8-million-hectare
   (14.3-million-acre) Macquarie Island reserve about 1,500 km (930
miles) off Australia's
   southeast tip, to become the world's largest protected marine area.

   Heard and McDonald Islands were inscribed on the World Heritage List
in 1997, but the
   government's top-level protection order gives the area further
protection. Declaring the area a
   protected reserve excludes most human activity and prohibits
commercial fishing and
   mineral and petroleum exploration. It also limits scientific research
activities.

   SPECTACULAR ANIMALS

   Kemp said the move would protect the habitat and food sources of a
list of animals including
   the southern elephant seal, the sub-antarctic fur seal, and several
penguin species.

   The reserve is also home to two species of the world's most majestic
seabird, the albatross
   — the light-mantled sooty albatross and the black-browed albatross —
while the seas
   contain soft corals, glass sponges, and giant barnacles.

   Kemp said the declaration would provide an effective framework to
manage the region in an
   integrated, ecologically sustainable way. "It will also provide a
scientific area for study of the
   ecosystem within the Heard Island and McDonald Islands region," he
said.

   The reserve falls within one of world's wildest places. Heard Island
is home to Australia's
   only active volcano, Big Ben, and is Australia's tallest mountain,
rising 2,745 meters (9,006
   ft) above a thick mantle of snow and glacial ice. McDonald Island,
the major island in the
   group, has such a steep shoreline that only two successful landings
have been made by
   boat since it was discovered a century ago.

   "The extreme isolation and the lack of introduced predators provide
an excellent location for
   investigating the effects of geographic isolation and climate on the
evolution of species," a
   government briefing paper said.