50/20: Celebrating Earth & Oceans

In parallel with celebrating 50 years of Earth Day, we must also recognize important marine conservation efforts, namely the emergent field of Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas (LSMPA), which came onto the scene in 2000, when the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was joined by the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve.

Read More
Naiʻa Lewis
A decade in the making!

Big Ocean will be celebrating 10-years of successful peer-learning across and among the world’s largest marine managed areas in 2020. Our celebratory events will begin in Marseille, France, in conjunction with the 2020 IUCN World Conservation Congress.

Read More
Naiʻa Lewis
Seamounts in New Caledonia

Imagine an underwater mountain covered with  forests, corals, sponges , anemones, acting simultaneously as  a shelter against currents,  a breeding ground, a rest area and a food larder for multiple species…

Read More
Naiʻa Lewis
Historical Seascapes

Story Maps are a unique interactive tools that help people understand, through virtual experience, geographic land or seascapes within a digital environment. This post features a Story Map entitled Historical & Cultural Seascape of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Read More
Naiʻa Lewis
Earth Day for the Oceans

Big Ocean was honored to provide the context of Large-Scale MPA management globally to students from HWST 365 at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The class that concentrates on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and World Heritage Site—and is taught by Kekuewa Kikiloi Ph.D.,

Read More
Naiʻa Lewis
PMNM Expansion

On Friday, August 26, 2016, President Obama signed a proclamation expanding the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Previously the largest contiguous fully-protected conservation area in the United States at 139,797 square miles (362,073 km2), the expanded boundaries make it once again the biggest protected area on the planet at 582,578 square miles (1,508,870 km2), nearly the size of the Gulf of Mexico.

Read More
Naiʻa Lewis
UK Scales-up Marine Protection

September 2016–Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan will today announce plans to double the area of ocean under marine protection around the UK Overseas Territories to around four million square kilometres – greater than the landmass of India.



Read More
Naiʻa Lewis
Global Guidelines

Big Ocean in partnership with the IUCN WCPA Large-Scale MPA Task Force is pleased to announce the launch of Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas: Guidelines for design and management, Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series, No. 26, at the 4th International Marine Protected Areas Congress.

Read More
Naiʻa Lewis