National Geographic Expands Ocean Zoning Campaign

An article in RIANOVOSTI discusses the National Geographic Society’s expanded ocean zoning campaign.  The article explains in part:

“The National Geographic Society has announced dramatic expansion of its campaign to protect the oceans and their biodiversity, by urging world leaders to designate over 20 locations as marine reserves in the next five years, the nonprofit institution said in a press release.

New efforts focus on the Seychelles, northern Greenland, and South America’s Patagonia region. The goal is to inspire corresponding governments to officially protect a total area of 770,000 square miles of ocean, said former US President Bill Clinton. ‘Preserving our oceans is essential for protecting biodiversity,’ he added in a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Monday.”

NMFS Responds to NGO Request for Seismic Ocean Zoning in the Atlantic

NRDC and other NGOs filed comments asking that NMFS preclude seismic surveys  in the Georges Bank, several submarine canyons, and some other areas of the Atlantic Ocean, including all habitat of the Atlantic right whale.  The NGOs argued that the biological richness of these Atlantic Ocean areas would be harmed by seismic, and that right whales would be jeopardized.  NMFS’ complex and generally negative response to these requests for Atlantic ocean zoning are available here at pages 52131-33.