Marine Reserves & Reef Conservation – We Have to Do More!
- Part of the mission of the Seahorse Hawaii Foundation is to help put 20% of our ocean into marine reserves around the world.
- This is the magic number that scientist believe will bring our ocean back to what is was 100 years ago.
- These marine reserves need to include the world nursery grounds, which are coral reefs, sea grass beds, bays, inshore and coastal waterways.
Without Protecting Marine Reserves and Reefs, We Do Not Have a Chance of Bringing Our Oceans Back to the Pristine State They Once Were.
The marine reserves and reefs are not only the areas where we like to surf and play, but these are the areas where the seahorse and many other beautiful fish and corals, were once common.
These marine reserves need to include the world nursery grounds, which are coral reefs, sea grass beds, bays, inshore and coastal waterways.
Returning seahorses to the reefs around Tavarua will help in re-building a long term and sustainable relationship between the people and the marine environment.
Today we have less than 1% of our oceans protected and 6% of this includes the recent addition of the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. We have to do more!
The Seahorse Hawaii Foundation is helping with the creation and protection of marine reserves of pristine reefs in Tonga. We are working to create a marine reserve in Vava u Tonga. Not only can you swim with Humpback whales here, but this is one of the worlds most pristine isolated and untouched reefs that we hope to preserve for future generations. However, close by are reefs that have been heavily stripped for food by villagers, poachers and aquarium collectors from all over the word.
In order to restock and restore these reefs, the Seahorse Hawaii Foundations’ goals include the creation of an aquafarm and research station for culturing and restocking corals, giant clams, sea cucumbers and seahorses, and other delicate reef animals.
Our hope is that this combination of marine reserve, aqua-farm and research lodge will become a model for other reef communities in Polynesia that are feeling the pressures of our global population of 7 billion people.
We just spent 2 weeks filming the underwater reefs in and around Tonga for the upcoming movie ‘A Different Kind of Farm’. We feel saving this unique underwater world is a perfect example of why marine reserves have to become an urgent worldwide priority.