UK to create world’s largest marine reserve

Britain says it will establish the world’s largest continuous marine reserve – covering an area almost three-and-a-half times bigger than the landmass of the United Kingdom – in the Pacific Ocean
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PACIFIC OCEAN

Pitcairn Islands (UK)

INDIAN OCEAN
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Squirrelfish – species found nowhere else on Earth

PITCAIRN ISLANDS MARINE RESERVE

834,334 sq km

Marine reserve boundary

Oeno Island

Henderson Island

Pitcairn Island

Ducie Island

United Kingdom on same scale 243,610 sq km

300km 185 miles
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PITCAIRN ISLANDS

Among most remote island groups in world. Population around 60, mostly descended from sailors who staged mutinyon ship HMS Bounty in 1789

New reserve aims to protect near-pristine ocean habitat from illegal fishing activities. Waters are hometo at least 1,249 species of marine mammals, seabirds and fish
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Sources: National Geographic, wire agencies

Picture: Wikimedia Commons

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