Marine Protect Area: Puerto Rico Increases Ocean Protection to 27%

A new marine protected area has been designated in Puerto Rico to bring their total ocean protection up to 27%, 3% away from the 30 x 30 promise many countries have promised to meet. The US has a total of 26% of its ocean in marine protected areas. In...
A new marine protected area has been designated in Puerto Rico to bring their total ocean protection up to 27%, 3% away from the 30 x 30 promise many countries have promised to meet. The US has a total of 26% of its ocean in marine protected areas.
In this episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast, host Andrew Lewin discusses establishing a new marine protected area (MPA) in Puerto Rico, which has increased the total protected area in their territorial waters to 27%. This new MPA, named Vega Baja and Manatee Underwater Gardens, spans 202 square kilometers (77 square miles) off the central north coast of Puerto Rico and encompasses vital ecosystems such as coral reefs, mangrove forests, and seagrass beds.
The designation of this MPA results from a 16-year effort led by local communities and NGOs, highlighting the importance of community involvement in conservation efforts. The local fishing community and ecotourism stakeholders played a crucial role in advocating for the protection of this area, recognizing its significance for sustainable fishing and tourism.
Lewin emphasizes that the success of the MPA relies on a co-management plan that balances human activities with ecological preservation. This approach involves local knowledge and traditional practices, ensuring that the management decisions reflect the needs and insights of those who rely on marine resources.
The episode underscores the importance of protecting these ecosystems not only for biodiversity but also for the economic well-being of the local community. By establishing this MPA, Puerto Rico is making strides toward the global goal of protecting 30% of land and water by 2030, showcasing a model for community-led conservation efforts. Lewin invites listeners, especially those from Puerto Rico, to share their thoughts and experiences regarding this significant development in marine conservation.
Link to article: https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/local-groups-drive-creation-of-new-puerto-rico-marine-protected-area/
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I am happy to say that a new marine protected area has been
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established in Puerto Rico that brings their
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total of protected area in their territorial waters
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to 27% and contributes
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to an MPA system that stretches from Puerto Rico to Cuba, adding
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to more areas protection. That means shallow coral reefs, seagrass
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beds, and mangroves for sea turtles and manatees to
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play around with for a long, long time. This is
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a huge deal to establish more protected areas, not only because
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there is a plan to protect 30% of land and
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water by 2030, but it also goes
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to having more protection for our oceans and
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to be able to protect species, not only the manatees, not only
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sea turtles, but other fish and invertebrates that fall within
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those areas. It's not an easy thing to establish a
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marine protected area. It's actually really difficult to do so. So
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we're gonna talk about the intricacies of this protected area, what's
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going to happen in the future, because it's just the beginning, and
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how we're going to go through with it and make sure that everything is protected. On
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this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, let's start the
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show. Hey
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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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I'm your host Andrew Lewin, and this is a podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean,
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how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean
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by taking action. And if this is your first time here, or
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your second time here, or it's been your 1600th time
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here, it doesn't matter because you have found a place for
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Ocean News and Ocean Conservation Science News and Ocean Conservation
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Conservation News. You can find everything you want, not only
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on this podcast, but also on our website speakupforblue.com. And
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get this, if you can't make it to our website all the time, I understand. you
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forward slash newsletter, sign up with your email
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you can protect the ocean. Potentially give you access to
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Reply to some of those news articles I want to hear and I want to hear from
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you about what you think of some of the news that's happening Some
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respond or even do another podcast on your question. So
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speakupforblue.com forward slash newsletter. Let's get into the show, because
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we are here to talk about some great news this Monday, whenever
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you're listening to this, or if you're listening to this on Tuesday. This episode is all about
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good news. A new marine protected area in Puerto
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Rico. Puerto Rico has established
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the Vega, Baja, and Manatee I don't know if I'm pronouncing it
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properly obviously it's in it's in Spanish underwater ground
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underwater gardens a 202 square kilometers space
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MPA off the central coast off the central north
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coast. It's a 77 square mile for
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my American friends. The MPA encompasses coral
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reefs, mangrove forests, and seagrass beds, providing a
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habitat for over a dozen threatened species, including the
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greater Caribbean manatee and various sea turtles. This
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designation results from a 16-year effort
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by local communities and NGOs aiming to protect
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vital ecosystems while supporting small-scale fishing
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and ecotourism. So this is
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not an easy feat to be able to designate a marine protected area
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like this. It's 202 square kilometers, which is big for the island of
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Puerto Rico. It's a 16-year process. Now,
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I want to talk a little bit about what would go into
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that 16-year process. This is a process with
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the best part of this article, which I found on Manga Bay News, and I'll link to
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it in the show notes, is it's community-led. That's
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a huge thing. So it's there for ecotourism. It's
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there for the artisanal fishers and
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the fishing community in there. This is where they came to
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the table at some point during the process, hopefully at the beginning.
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It doesn't give a lot of information on the article in terms of the history of
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it. But they were able to come together and say, hey, you know
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what? This is an important area. This 202 square kilometer
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area is an important area to protect because it provides a lot for our
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fishing. We depend on this resource, fishing, tourism, and
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a number of other recreational features for that area to
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be able to come to the table and use this area sustainably
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for a number of years to come, like 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years
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to come, as long as this designation is in place. They realized, the
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community realized that this was an important habitat to protect, and
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so they got together And over that process, over that 16 years,
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they punched out an MPA that we are going to see today. And
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it's not just an MPA just where it's one
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whole MPA. Right now, it's probably just one whole MPA. The goal
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in the future is to try and put in different management areas
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to manage different activities that happen within
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the MPA. That's a very important part of this, because
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we realize that having one big MPA of like it's
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202 Square kilometers. This is a huge area to monitor and
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to make sure that you know Everything is is abided by
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right? We don't want fishers coming in and overfishing within the area or fishing
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at all within the area if they're not allowed to There might be some spots within
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the larger MPA There might be some little spots that are very that
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are absolutely necessary to protect So it means no
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fishing nobody goes in there not even scientists and we may see
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a management area That's just a reserve where you can't get in at all
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and There might be areas where it's just science that is able to conduct
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monitoring practices to make sure they can evaluate the success
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or even the detriment of the marine protected area depending on what happens
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in the future. There could be areas where you allow sea kayaking or
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scuba divers or snorkeling as a recreational area. There could
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be areas for artisanal fishers at certain points of time.
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Having any extractive activities that's within an MPA under
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the new definitions isn't necessarily an MPA. So it'll be interesting to
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see how this is defined if they truly want it
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as a MPA that's internationally recognized as
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a marine protected area. MPA is a short for Marine Protected Area.
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Now the other important thing here is there's
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a co-management planning practice. So ongoing efforts to developing
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a co-management plan to balance human activities. That's what
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it's all about. So it's not just the government up from the top saying you
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can't go in there, it's The local community that's coming
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together and saying, OK, here we have all these areas. This is what happens
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from our monitoring and our traditional knowledge that we have about this
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area. We know what goes on. They know best. Right. The government
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officials may not be in the area. They may not be familiar with the area as
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much as fishers, as much as surfers, as much as scuba
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divers or snorkelers. So they will rely on the knowledge from
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the users to be able to inform them to make a
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better management decision. Because when you have the buy in from the community, That's
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when you start coming up with great MPAs and successful MPAs
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where you start to see a growth in the abundance and the size like
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the biomass of fish within a fishery species or
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within a habitat. You start seeing healthier ecosystems, so
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healthier habitats, seagrass habitats, mangrove forests, coral
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reefs that Tipify this area so when you
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see those are healthy because there's no fishing. There are no boating in
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there where it can get damaged by Propellers or damaged by
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anchors the big one of the big things with seagrass forest is or
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seagrass meadows and seagrass beds is that when people go
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to either fish or do whatever they're doing within the water they
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anchor down and what happens is they'll see like a seagrass area
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and they'll say oh this can handle an anchor because it's just the bottom
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they may not do it on a coral reef but if they see like a
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sandy bottom or even like seaweed down there or
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you know seagrass They might just anchor into there and
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that might get destroyed over time. You might see
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these anchor drags along the bottom. You'll see this
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space within the seagrass meadows. This is one of the things when I spoke to
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Project Seagrass was one of the major problems
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within, I believe it was the Mediterranean at the time, and other places we
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see around, was anchoring boats. So what they'll do is, a
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lot of marine protected areas, what they'll do as a service is they'll create these buoy systems.
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And the buoys are anchored somewhere else where it's not on the seagrass, but you
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can actually have boats above the seagrass to be able to anchor
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to this boat buoy and not actually damage the
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seagrass bed below. Because seagrasses are biodiversity hotspots.
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They are areas that have known to have more
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biodiversity than coral reefs, more biodiversity than
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mangrove forests, right? Just different assemblages of
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fish and invertebrates that are young and old and
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big and small. and invertebrates as well, and you just start
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to see them all come together. They have a lot of hiding spots within these
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seagrass meadows, and it's a very important, you know, it's
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a very important habitat for this, you know, area, for
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this complex. It's like the coral reef, seagrass meadow, as
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well as mangrove forest. So you need to protect those from
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any kind of physical damage, as well as any kind of fishing damage too,
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right? You have the mangrove forests, which are very coastal, like
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right along the coast. Those need to be protected a
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lot from physical changes. So if there's an actual protection, like
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an actual marine protected area, it's easier from a coastal perspective
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to protect those areas because we can actually see it with our eyes. It's
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very difficult to see how a coral reef is
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doing or see how a seagrass bed is doing because they're submerged underwater.
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Now, a lot of times they're clear water and you can do a lot of survey assessments, but
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it's expensive to get a boat to go out there. It's not like having a land marine protected
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area, or a land protected area, not marine, a protected area on
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land, and you can actually see the changes, you know, whether you
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fly a drone over it, or you can see trees coming down, or
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what have you, right? Damages because of development or anything like
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that. It's easier to see a land protected area than it
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is to see what's happening underwater. So then it's less expensive,
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of course. So it's good to have that coastal area, but
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that's another area for like it's a nursery ground. It
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could be a ground where, you know, there's like a rearing area where
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young fish and invertebrates are growing and they're eating
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specific foods before they go off to the seagrass meadow or even coral reef.
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And then of course you have the coral reefs, which is sort of the eye
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candy of this complex and probably a lot of tropical areas.
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They have a lot of stuff that is happening to them from algal growth
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because of increased nutrients to climate change. So we need to
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take away the human effect, the direct human effect of
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this area of this habitat that can disrupt this habitat right
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so you're looking at fishing or boating or or controlling snorkeling
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and scuba diving sessions from damage from
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people touching and things like that you want to make sure you take away all of those
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and allow fish to be around there you have the herbivores who take
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care of the algae to make sure there's no overgrowth in algae And
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then, of course, you have other fish around there that will be good for
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fisheries later on. They'll be good for the diversity of the habitat. Coral
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reefs are a very diverse habitat, as you probably already know if
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you've been listening to this podcast at any point in time. Coral
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reefs are one of the most diverse habitats in the world, and they
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are great to look at. They're a great tourist attraction, but they are very, very
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sensitive to changes in water quality, to changes
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in any kind of disruption, physical disruption or anything like that. So we need
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to make sure we protect our coral reefs. So all three habitats are
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very important to the complex of the ecosystem that's
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in Puerto Rico. And having this protection really truly
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helps from a biological standpoint, as well as a social standpoint, right?
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We talk about how much money this resource provides
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you know, the Puerto Rico, the local community in Puerto Rico to say, Hey,
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we actually need this stuff. You know, we, we, we fish
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off of this, we get money from tourism off of this, you know, so
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it's a very important. aspect
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of, you know, the coastal community, and to make sure
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that's a healthy coastal community, because managing, you know, one of the one
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of the things that I've always heard, and I've always liked this, and
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Dr. Ed Heinozon, a good friend of mine that I've known through the
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podcast, and through just a colleague of mine, He
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has said to me time and time again, to manage the ocean, you have to
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manage the people. So looking at society that uses
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the ocean or that may come into contact with
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the ocean indirectly or directly is really, really important. Marine
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protected areas offer that importance. It's a huge,
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huge part of conservation. It's a huge tool that
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we need to use. And that's why there's a 30 by 30 sort
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of deadline by 2030. So 30% of marine protected
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areas and 30% of the land will be protected by
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2030, hopefully. It looks like Puerto Rico has achieved that or
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close to achieve that because around their territory waters, they have 27% of
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their waters protected. That's a huge, huge accomplishment.
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Now, I don't know the rest of their marine protected areas and how well they're protected,
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but it'll be interesting to see if they follow the same type of formula
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that they did in this one to be able to apply and
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get a community-backed marine protected area. Not an
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easy thing to do. This took 16 years to do. Who knows how long
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the next 3% will take to get them up
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to that 30%. but I would love to hear from you. People who
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are in this audience who are from Puerto Rico, is this big news
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for you? Do you hear about it a lot on
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your news or newspapers or anything like that, local radio? I
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would love to hear your thoughts on this. And anybody else who has been
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to Puerto Rico, has a tie to Puerto Rico, or just in love with the
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ocean and around those areas, I would love to hear from you as
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well to find out what you think of this story. And do you think it's
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a great thing or not? Obviously, it's a good thing, but I'd love to know more about
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the intricacies of this marine protected area going in. So
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hit me up on Instagram at how to protect the ocean. And don't
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forget, if you're watching this on YouTube, don't forget to subscribe and
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hit that notification bell. We publish three times a week at
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least. And so if you don't want to miss any of the episodes, all you have to
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do is hit subscribe and hit that notification bell. and you'll get a notification
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every time we publish. So that's it for today's episode. I
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want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I am your host, Andrew Lewin, and this
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is a great day knowing that there's a marine protected area in
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place again. I want to thank you so much for joining us. Have a great day.