As of right now, only 3% of our ocean’s surface is protected which is notably less than the amount of terrestrial land that we are protecting. It has been shown that we could increase the percentage of seabird conservation by over 20%. Right now, seabirds are the most endangered bird group internationally. BirdLife International has released a new study showing that we could drastically improve the amount of protection that these seabird populations have by specifically protecting areas of Patagonian water.
These studies are all based on the spatial distribution of pelagic seabirds within the area. This could heavily boost the population of seabirds as well as multiple different other forms of ocean life. As of right now, the areas that are looking at being protected are very broad and subject to adaptation. This will all just take a new method of applying these preservation methods as well as a continuous review of what areas should be protected.
Some of the reasons behind why this area is of such high concern are because this area has a lot of intense fishing traffic as well as seeing some of the biggest changes to global warming. We could effectively stop a lot of the destruction happening to our sea and marine life as we are able to more effeciently plan exactly which area of the ocean we should protect.
