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The Indiscriminate Slaughter at Sea Facts About Bycatch and Discards

WWF Marine Conservation Achievements

Safeguarding Critical Ocean Habitats - Facts about Marine Protected Areas



Fact Sheet: WWF Marine Conservation Achievements

January 12th, 1998

WWF has played an important role in marine conservation around the world for over 30 years.  In addition to its major initiative, the Endangered Seas Campaign, to end chronic overfishing, WWF is involved with over 50 projects to establish and effectively manage marine parks and reserves and many programmes to protect populations of endangered marine species such as whales and turtles.  WWF also plays an important role at both international and national levels, influencing policies on marine resource management, and promoting the adoption and implementation of important global agreements to safeguard the future of the world's oceans.  The following are just a few examples of successful achievements, attributable to both WWF and its many national and international partner organisations.

Southern Oceans Whale Sanctuary
The campaign to help achieve the IWC's (International Whaling Commission) declaration of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, which covers virtually the whole of the Southern Ocean, is one of WWF's greatest marine success stories.  First proposed by the Government of France in 1992, it was adopted only two years later, largely as a result of vigorous campaigning by WWF and other large environmental organizations.  The Sanctuary is crucial in ensuring the recovery of the whale populations that were originally the most abundant in the world, and had suffered most from whaling.  The sperm whales and most of the Southern Hemisphere baleen whales migrate to the Southern Ocean around Antarctica to feed in summer. Through the establishment of the Sanctuary, large-scale whaling should be ended for ever.

Contact: Cassandra Phillips, WWF International.  
Photos: WWF International

Marine Parks in the Caribbean
The islands of Bonaire and Saba, in the Dutch Antilles, are famous for their almost pristine coral reefs which are among the most diverse in the region, attracting thousands of SCUBA divers each year.  WWF Netherlands has played a major role in the establishment and management of both the Bonaire and Saba Marine Parks, and these are now considered as models and emulated in many other parts of the world.  Both parks have developed innovative financing mechanisms, whereby visitors contribute to the management of the parks by paying a donation.  WWF is continuing its work on the islands, by supporting the activities of local conservation organisations.

Contact: Janien van Rossum, WWF Netherlands. 
Photos: WWF Netherlands and WWF International

Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park, Hong Kong
WWF Hong Kong has been actively involved in the establishment of Hong Kong's first marine parks since 1988.  Hoi Ha Wan together with another three areas (Yan Chau Tong, Cape d'Aguilar and Sha Chau/Lung Kwu Chau) were finally designated as Marine Parks and Reserves in 1996 after almost 9 years of hard-work in site selection and government lobbying. Hoi Ha Wan is of great ecological importance and high biological diversity, over 30 species of corals having been identified within this small sheltered bay which also includes mangroves, a sandy beach, and rocky shores. WWF HK is planning to construct a Marine Life Education Centre here to increase public awareness of the importance of marine conservation. The proposed Centre will be managed by WWF HK and will complement the work of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department in managing the Park.

Contact: Carmen Lee, WWF HK. 
Photos: WWF Hong Kong

Menai Bay Marine Conservation Area, Zanzibar
Menai Bay, in the south west of  Zanzibar, is a traditional fishing ground for visiting and resident fishermen. In the early nineties, increased pressure coupled with illegal fishing practices such as dynamite and *Kigumo* (fishing by encircling coral reef with a net and knocking the corals to scare the fish out) became prominent environmental problems. In response, the local community formed an informal management committee, developed a management plan, and initiated a surveillance programme. However, problems arose due to the lack of legal recognition of their operations. Since 1995, the WWF Tanzania Programme Office has been working closely with the Zanzibar government and all the local stakeholders to establish the Menai Bay Conservation Area. WWF has helped to train fisheries staff in communication skills and working with local communities, has assisted with the formation of village communities, identified with the village communities the key points to be covered through the management scheme, and purchased radios for better communication around the project area.  Menai Bay Conservation Area was subsequently gazetted in August 1997, covering an area of 470 sq. km.

Contact: Winley Sichone or Lucy Kashaija, WWF Tanzania Programme Office
Photos: WWF International and WWF Tanzania

Protecting marine turtles in the Mediterranean
WWF-Greece has played a key role in the protection of the Mediterranean population of the loggerhead turtle, one of seven globally endangered marine turtles.  One in every five loggerheads in the Mediterranean lays its eggs on beaches in Laganas Bay, on the island of Zakynthos.  Uncontrolled tourism development in the 1980s presented unsurmountable problems for nesting female turtles which, frightened by noise, lights and human activity, began to cease returning to this area.  In 1994, WWF-Greece purchased 32 ha of the land surrounding Sekania, the most important beach, to provide a haven for the loggerheads, where up to 2000 nests may be found per kilometre.  Supported by the European Union and the public in Greece, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, through a massive public awareness and fundraising campaign, WWF has compensated local landowners in order to protect the beach.  Work is underway now to develop appropriate coastal management practices in the area and to expand the protection of all nesting beaches in the region, through the establishment of the National Marine Park of Zakynthos.

Contact: Themistoklis Sbarounis, WWF-Greece
Photos: WWF International and WWF Greece

Conservation of Albatrosses
The main threat to albatrosses, the flying giants of the ocean waves, is long lining.  This is the fishing method which uses baited hooks on lines that extend out for kilometres behind the fishing boats.  The birds are attracted to the bait, and huge numbers have been caught on the hooks and drowned.  WWF has helped to bring in a range of measures to eliminate this by-catch problem. In Australia, WWF lobbied successfully to have albatrosses listed under the Commonwealth Endangered Species Act, which requires the government to prepare a Threat Abatement Plan to address by catch, and to develop a Recovery Plan for the Macquarie Island Wandering Albatross colony.  These activities are now in their final stages.

Contact: Margaret Moore, WWF-Australia. 
Photos: WWF International

Averting the chemical threat to the oceans
Wildlife - and humans - are exposed daily to synthetic chemical compounds, that even in small doses, disrupt development of the reproductive, immune, nervous and endocrine systems.  These endocrine disruptors constitute a major threat, and marine mammals and other aquatic wildlife may be most at risk.  The oceans are the ultimate sink for toxic pollution.  There is good evidence for seals in the North Sea that their heavy load of contaminants is linked to their high levels of immuno-deficiency and reproductive failure.  The endangered beluga whales of the St Lawrence estuary in Canada are among the most contaminated animals on earth, with tumours, reproductive problems and heavy metal poisoning.  Following publication of the book Our Stolen Future, by WWF-US Senior Scientist Theo Colborn, WWF has been campaigning worldwide to phase-out the use of toxic chemicals.  It is playing a major role in the development of an international legally-binding instrument to regulate the use of certain chemicals and has lobbied successfully for the inclusion of many in the list of hazardous substances covered by the 1992 Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic. Contact: Elizabeth Salter, WWF-UK, Stephan Lutter, WWF North-East Atlantic Programme, c/o WWF-Germany