National Geographic
August 26, 2019
On August 24 the council of Ascension Island, a UK Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, announced its support for the designation of a giant marine reserve around Ascension Island. At 440,000 square kilometers, the new reserve will be by far the largest in the Atlantic Ocean (roughly the size of the state of California). Once established, the marine protected area (MPA) will bring the highest level of protection to this region’s exceptional biodiversity by prohibiting commercial fishing and extractive industries.