An ambitious plan to link marine parks across a vast swathe of ocean — whose surface area would equal that of the Moon — is slowly coming together piece by piece, say conservationists.
Former international rugby league player turned environmentalist Kevin Iro is a driving force behind the part of the park that will encompass the Cook Islands — a nation whose combined landmass is barely bigger than Washington DC.
"When I was a kid, this was all alive," said Iro, grimacing as he scooped up a lump of dead, grey coral while walking the white sands of a Cook Island beach in the Pacific.
"There were tracks in the coral and if you walked off them you could hear the coral crunching. Now there's no coral here, basically."
The Cooks' Prime Minister Henry Puna formally unveiled the 411,000 square mile reserve when he hosted the Pacific Islands Forum last month, vowing to protect the ocean for future generations.
Puna said the commitment by the tiny nation of 15 islands was its major contribution "to the well-being of not only our peoples, but also of humanity."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!