Once I (literally) dived deeper though, I found an endless world of color and beauty living in harmony. To see first-hand the power of nature and conservation was life-changing to say the least. It reminded me just how important MPAs are, and how integral they are in the maintenance of thriving ecosystems like this beautiful reef!

This is a brief snippet of one of the transect dives I did with Love The Oceans (a non-profit working to establish Jangamo Bay as an EPA)!

To this day, visiting this special place every year with my family reminds me of why I wanted to work to protect the ocean in the first place. I feel incredibly fortunate to have experienced this love so early in life. 💙

Learn more about this Blue Park here!  

2023 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, the managers of this reserve implemented a pilot project testing a "Tourist Management System" aimed at limiting visitor numbers to sustainable levels and preserving the Marine Reserve's rich coral reef ecosystems. They updated their radio system and renovated their ranger station.

2024 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: This current grant supports community-based reef restoration, which educates and empowers local communities to restore and manage coral reefs. These reefs are vital breeding, nursery, and feeding grounds in one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. 

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

2024 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, the managers of this park are constructing a strategically placed lifeguard tower, providing staff with an aerial view of the marine park. The tower improves park enforcement and visitor safety monitoring. 

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

2023 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, the managers of this park were able to install mooring buoys within the MPA to aid tour operators, conduct a two-day training on sustainable tourism, plant trees for World Environment Day, perform a beach cleanup, fund monthly joint patrols, and maintain some of their patrol boats. Through these activities, they aimed to enhance community involvement, promote sustainable fishing practices, and increase levels of positive community perception. 

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

Learn more about this Blue Park here!

2024 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, the managers of this sanctuary can buy specialized equipment necessary for improving the effectiveness of their patrols, including binoculars, thermal detection equipment for detecting illegal poachers, and radios. 

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

2023 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, the managers of this sanctuary were able to improve monitoring tools for reliable data collection to better understand climate change impacts on the coral reefs. They purchased a pH/temperature logger, a saltwater conductivity logger, and the necessary software to monitor a global mass coral bleaching event that unfolded between December 2023 and 2024.

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

2023 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, the managers of this park were able to buy an Alpha Water Sampler Kit to conduct water quality assessments more easily, in addition to a Starlink connection to improve communications between the field officers and management on the mainland.

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

2023 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, the managers of this park were able to establish a long-term garbage collection program with the local community in the mangrove ecosystem of the Park. As a result of this effort, they collected a total of 418 kg of waste! 

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

2024 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, the park managers bought technological supplies to aid in monitoring efforts.

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

2024 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, the Sulubaaï Environmental Foundation is implementing a community-based aquaculture project to support food security and alternative livelihoods for local fishers. The project aims to provide economic stability while raising awareness of sustainable practices and ecosystem protection.

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

2024 Blue Park Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, The Palau International Coral Reef Center has organized interactive sessions with researchers aboard their vessel for expeditions. By connecting communities to this unique ecosystem, they foster appreciation and support for the sanctuary's protection and management. 

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

2024 Blue Parks Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Parks Impact Fund, the managers of this park were able purchase laptops to support real-time surveillance operations. With these resources, staff will analyze and respond to data on suspicious activities, leading to more effective enforcement and protection of the marine ecosystem. 

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

2023 Blue Parks Impact Fund Grant: Thanks to generous donations to the Blue Park Impact Fund, the managers of this park were able to complete the design phase of a mobile classroom for environmental education and conservation.

Want to help us fund more on-the-water conservation work like this? Click here to donate to our Blue Parks Impact Fund.

Sitting on the northernmost tip of Amelia Island, Fort Clinch State Park has sat keeping a watchful eye over the St. Mary river for almost two hundred years. When I first moved to Amelia Island, I was drawn to Fort Clinch for my love of history, but was entranced by the natural beauty of the park and its waterfront. My family and I took many walks along the battlements at sunset, always spying a playful dolphin or a peaceful manatee lounging in the surf. The beach still has a wild and natural feel, a major improvement to the major development on most Florida beaches.

This bay is more than water – it’s a living memory. Beneath the waves, seagrass meadows sway, seagulls trace the paths of fishermen, and every tide carries a story. Kaštela Bay taught me to truly listen to the sea – to its beauty, its wounds, and its quiet strength. It may not be pristine, but it’s alive, honest, and deeply worth protecting.

Through this research, they discovered that a large number of sharks that forage each fall in the waters off the coast of California migrate to an open ocean region of the High Seas, approximately the size of Colorado, between Hawaii and Baja. This area is known as the White Shark Café.

Large male white sharks (and some females) migrate to the Café around February-March. It remains uncertain whether they are feeding, mating, or both. However, scientists know for certain that this is an important area that has ecological value. 

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

"The Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) spans 4.5 million square kilometers (1.7 million square miles) between Hawaii and Mexico, an abyssal plain as wide as the continental United States and punctuated by seamounts. Lying atop the muddy bottom or embedded just beneath it are trillions of potato-size polymetallic nodules. These rocklike deposits contain nickel, manganese, copper, zinc, cobalt, and other minerals.

At these depths—completely dark but for occasional flashes of bioluminescence—the nodules are often the only hard substrate on a seabed of soft clay, which makes them attractive homes for creatures in need of anchor or habitat. The sediment surrounding the nodules also harbors remarkably high biodiversity."

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

Swatch of No Ground is a 14 km-wide deep sea canyon of the Bay of Bengal. The deepest recorded area of this valley is about 1340m. The submarine canyon is part of the Bengal Fan, the largest submarine fan in the world. Sea snakes, endangered olive ridley sea turtles, marlin, tuna, the Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphin, and Bryde's whales all live in the Bay of Bengal.

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

Vent food webs are independent of the shallows, so impacts at the sea surface have little effect on them. However, vent communities are susceptible to activities that could occur on the seafloor bed, such as deep-sea mining for rare metals. The unusual life found along the East Pacific Rise and at other hydrothermal vent sites should be protected against mining and other potentially harmful activities.

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

There is no credible doubt that global warming is rapidly melting the Arctic’s permanent sea ice. This will open vast areas of the Arctic seafloor—for the first time in human history—to shipping, oil drilling, and bottom trawling, creating new threats that may adversely impact these as-yet untouched ecosystems.

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

The rare and extreme conditions found at the Lost City may one day help us understand how life originated on Earth. We need to act now to protect this site, both to preserve its incredible and unique ecosystem and for future scientific study.

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

The ridges are still largely pristine due to a lack of fishing in the region, presenting a unique opportunity to protect the site before it is significantly damaged.

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

The floating seaweed provides a special but fragile home for a wide range of highly specialized animals, including the Sargassum frog fish, critically endangered sea turtles, more than 25 seabird species, and over 30 marine mammal species.

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

This dynamic and productive area of the High Seas is threatened by destructive fishery practices, making it the perfect candidate for a marine protected area (MPA).

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

Learn more about the importance of protecting the High Seas here!

Swimming has been with me all my life. It provides me with three wondrous things: time, space and connection. Time to myself to contemplate, reflect, explore, see and watch. An endless, fathomless space where there is no one else but my own thoughts. And a connection with our natural world – something that is so essential to our health and wellbeing, but often not properly appreciated by many of us buried in the race of modern-day living.

Swimming in our small lagoon is both a privilege and a delight. I know exactly how fortunate I am. Being in the ocean is the pinnacle of the swimming experience. It’s multi-dimensional, responding to the pull of the Moon and the rotation of the Earth. Buoyed by the motion of the waves, I feel connected to our planet, to my past and my future. It represents complete freedom. And it’s here that I feel completely comfortable and at home.

Our environment works as a meshed series of systems to achieve and maintain a balance. We can learn a lot about our wider natural world just by looking at this tiny microcosm of life on Norfolk Island’s southern coast. It’s a perfect vignette, a window to a global ecosystem that is showing all the signs of being in trouble. But while the issues can seem insurmountable, there are things we can do to help. It needs every one of us to take an interest, to care, and to face its reality. By creating resilient reefs, we can give them their best chance against the larger forces at work in our oceans.

In this beautiful bay, enclosed by the famous Chapman’s Peak Drive to the east, there are resident, endemic Heaviside’s dolphins, there are frequent sunfish, there are often little rafts of Africa penguins, the southern right whales and humpbacks like to gather just a bit further out to sea in the South Atlantic ocean basin beyond the Sentinel, the scuba diving is cold, but the invertebrate life is wild, with rocky reefs smattered with creatures of every colour. Then there are also the kelp beds, the Cape fur seal colony, the terns and gulls and cormorants, the bait balls, the variety of jellyfish species. It’s a sea full of life despite the pressure of being adjacent to an urban area with a major shipping lane not far away and a working fishing harbour in the midst of it. All of which also makes it a fine example of why we need MPAs - without some form of regulation, the exceptional seascapes and marine life would be at risk.

The Table Mountain National Park MPA stretches all around the Cape Peninsula, so this is just a slice of it. What’s amazing is that just a few miles away is False Bay, part of the same MPA, and while there are similarities, there are also big differences in some of the marine life, the ecosystems, the temperatures, the currents. The MPA is almost 1,000 square kilometres in size and it’s a culturally significant area, containing numerous wrecks and traditional fishing communities. It has a complex zonation of restricted (no-take) and controlled areas and it also contains three harbours and six small-vessel launching sites. It promotes tourism, it’s an important refuge for abalone and west coast rock lobster, it’s home to the Great African Seaforest, it allows for the recovery of reef fish, like the galjoen and the red roman, and it protects historical marine sites. And if none of that appeals, well, it’s just helluva pretty.

In the height of the summer months, just 400 metres from shore, there are dozens of pregnant ragged tooth sharks quietly hanging out at Quarter Mile Reef, which is closed to divers over the season so as not to disturb this critically endangered species. (If that makes you nervous, don’t be - raggies don’t eat when they’re pregnant and they never tend to bite, pregnant or not). And that’s just the start of the reefs. On Stringer, which is only 13 metres deep, and not very long, the life is incredible, with huge potato bass, big honeycomb moray eels, paperfish, ghost pipefish, marble electric rays, guitar fish, cleaner shrimp, shoals of glassies, pufferfish, round ribbon tail rays, large rock lobsters, the odd juvenile pineapplefish and more all often on view. Manta rays and eagle ray fly-overs aren’t uncommon either. Move to a different reef and there are scribbled pipefish, sleeping turtles, garden eels, finger corals with hiding porcelain crabs, frogfish, sea horses. Go elsewhere and there are white tip reef sharks, nudis, huge shoals of snappers, octopuses. The humpback whales migrate through in winter. The dolphins often play in the dive boats’  wakes year round. There are many reefs to choose from and I’ve been told, but never done any deep research into it, that fish diversity is at about 1,200 species versus the Great Barrier Reef’s 1,500. That’s pretty great. Also - the coral diversity is, I’ve also been told, of the world’s highest. Go deep, like 100m, on a tec dive into one of the three deep, offshore canyons, and there are even coelacanths! The biodiversity is just wild.

On the long stretches of beach, loggerhead and leatherback turtles nest every summer. And beyond the bay are giant dunes said to be of the world’s highest. They’re covered in thick coastal forest with many of their own special species. Behind the dunes is Lake Sibaya, South Africa’s largest freshwater lake and home to crocodiles, hippos and fish eagles. So, you can dive with marine wonders in the morning and have sundowners in the bush with fish eagles calling in the evening. As an MPA, it’s incredibly special.

But it’s not just the sardine run that makes this area, also known as the Wild Coast, special. For one thing, it’s hard to access the ocean, the roads are bad. What that means in our built-up world is that it’s quite pristine, it’s very rural. The landscapes are vast, mostly untouched. There are sea cliffs, arches and coastal forests. There are natural rock pools, long beaches, big estuaries, cows meandering along on the sand. And out to sea are the seabirds, whales, dolphins, visible from far away when they’re going after a bait ball.

The Pondoland marine protected area, in other words, is gobsmackingly beautiful and a paradise for nature lovers. As South Africa’s MPA info site says, this 1237.3 square kilometre MPA stretches for 90km along the Wild Coast. Some of the country’s healthiest estuaries are protected, as is a rich diversity of  fish, including over-exploited linefish species like red steenbras, black musselcracker, scotsman, yellowbelly rockcod and others. The MPA is an important transition point between sub-tropical waters to the north and warm temperate waters to the south. This makes it home to a high percentage of endemic species found nowhere else in the world. Research has shown many important linefish species are more abundant and larger in this MPA’s no-take-zones than in the controlled fishing areas. The research has also proven the benefits of the MPA to nearby fisheries.