[Coral-List] Ocean protection

[Steve Mussman]

Dear Listers,

It comes as somewhat of a surprise to me that a controversy has developed regarding the establishment of a number of large protected areas of open ocean.. A recent op-ed piece in The NY Times took issue with the rationale behind these efforts. I was wondering if the community of coral reef scientists had any thoughts on the subject. I would imagine that protecting inshore coastal areas would be more vital to coral reefs, but what about the wider open ocean as a whole?

Here are summaries of the two conflicting perspectives. 

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/opinion/environment-ocean-conservation..html?referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com

http://www.oceanelders.org/news/ocean-conservation-bigger/

Regards,
Steve

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