The UK is to ban commercial fishing from a million square kilometres of ocean around British overseas territories, the government said on Thursday. In total, the government is creating marine protected areas around four islands in the Pacific and Atlantic, including the designation this week of one of the world’s biggest around the Pitcairn Islands. A 840,000 sq km (320,000 sq mile) area around Pitcairn, where the mutineers of the Bounty settled, becomes a no-take zone for any fishing from this week. St Helena, around 445,000 sq km of the south Atlantic ocean and home to whale sharks and humpbacks, is now also designated as a protected area. Experts said the large range required for such creatures meant large-scale marine protected areas would be a key part of addressing the problem.

Source: The Guardian September 15, 2016 10:58 UTC