#Diving ascension island full

Martin Harper of RSPB remarked on the challenges of protecting Ascension’s unique ecosystem: Earle, Laffoley and Hall only saw one or two small Galapagos sharks during their four days of diving around Ascension Island – an observation that would have been unthinkable just a decade or two ago.

Nesting Green Sea Turtle © Dan Laffoleyįarther offshore, marlin, swordfish, tuna and sharks patrol the deep waters, but in fewer numbers today due to previous commercial fishing. Black triggerfish ( Melichthys niger) are super abundant around the island, along with eels and grouper. Near shore, hawksbill and green sea turtles abound along with resident bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales, which migrate to the island each fall to raise young in the tropical waters. This volcanic island also supports the Atlantic’s second-largest green sea turtle breeding population. Smaller geographically than the city of San Francisco and with a working population of only 800 people, this small but mighty island is considered to be one of the world’s most important seabird breeding sites, hosting the entire global population of the Ascension frigatebird and half a million sooty terns. A core part of the trip was therefore listening, learning (and diving!) with the people on island, and then communicating their views back to the UK Government.Īscension Island lies in the middle of the tropical Atlantic Ocean, nearly 1,000 miles from the west coast of Africa and 1,400 miles from the east coast of South America. Sylvia Earle visited Ascension Island earlier this month with IUCN’s Marine Vice-Chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas, Professor Dan Laffoley, and RSPB’s Head of Overseas Territories, Jonathan Hall, to explore this Mission Blue Hope Spot, draw attention to its values and seek the views of residents, many of whom have lived on the island for decades.

Mission Blue founder and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Sylvia Earle on Ascension Island © Dan Laffoley 2 Fully protecting these areas would mean shielding countless rare and threatened species including endemic seabirds, whales, turtles, penguins and corals from the enormous threats of overfishing, pollution and resource extraction.

1 The three MPAs proposed around Ascension, Pitcairn and South Sandwich Islands would more than double the size of existing protected areas in the global ocean. The United Kingdom has jurisdiction over the fifth largest combined ocean area in the world – a collection of territories nearly 30 times the size of the UK itself.

#Diving ascension island full

Through the Great British Oceans campaign, this alliance between 106 signatories including The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Greenpeace UK, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Marine Conservation Society, the Zoological Society of London, the Blue Marine Foundation, the Marine Reserves Coalition and National Geographic Society is gaining support for the UK to fund large-scale, full marine protection in the waters surrounding Ascension, Pitcairn and South Sandwich Islands. Mission Blue has teamed up with a coalition of leading marine conservation organizations to urge the British Government to step up to its responsibility to safeguard the maritime zones of the UK’s overseas territories by creating three of the largest marine protected areas (MPAs) in the world.