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| a white anemone in protected waters, credit WCS |
Argentina created two new massive marine parks--32,818 sq. miles--in the southwest Atlantic, Yaganes and Namuncurá-Burdwood Bank II. The parks are located in a boundary area between cold Southern Ocean waters and more temperate Atlantic waters. The swellings of cold seawater create zones of impressive biodiversity. The Wildlife Conservation Society called the designations an impressive achievement of democratic debate. The Argentinian House voted unanimously for the designation, and the Senate followed with confirmation on December 5th. These designations bring Argentina closer to the 8% of its coast seas protected under commitments to international conservation goals. The Aichi Targets recommenced that countries commit 10% of their jurisdictional seas to conservation by 2020.
Argentina created its first offshore park, Namuncurá-Burdwood Bank I, in 2013. WCS helped to fund the technical work needed to establish baseline data and the very concept of offshore underwater parks. WCS has been involved with protecting the lands and seas of Patagonia, a unique ecosystem, since the 1970's. Dr. Claudio Campagna, director of WCS’s Patagonian Sea and Sky Project
and president of the Forum for the Conservation of the Patagonian Sea said the creation of, “parks of sea and sky in which an immense quantity of penguins and albatrosses, wolves and marine elephants, sharks, rays, cold corals and many other species, will be able to fulfill their life cycles in peace and as nature mandates.
Green Kudos to Argentina!
