What Steps Are Being Taken to Protect North America’s Oceans?

The United Nations has set a goal of protecting 10 percent of the world’s oceans by 2020, and countries such as Chile, New Zealand, and Tahiti have eagerly signed on. In 2017, Mexico joined the growing global effort by creating Revillagigedo Archipelago National Park, a 57,000-square-mile (147,629-sq-km) protection zone where commercial fishing and mining will be banned to maintain healthy and sustainable ocean ecosystems. Scientists have warned that the world's oceans have experienced worrying drops in predatory fish populations because of overfishing.

Joining the battle to preserve healthy oceans:

• The new marine reserve, roughly the size of the U.S. state of Georgia, surrounds four volcanic islands about 240 miles (390 km) southwest of Cabo San Lucas, on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.
• Diverse ocean life thrives in these waters, including four species of sea turtles, more than 37 species of sharks and rays, and at least 366 species of fish found nowhere else on Earth.
• The Washington Post reported in 2017 that President Donald Trump plans to shrink two marine protection zones in the Pacific Ocean and open up another off the coast of New England to commercial fishing.