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THREAD: Today, @OceanProgress released a new report on protecting ocean habitat for fisheries. Both state and federal fisheries managers can set aside special areas that fish need to reproduce and grow, and we wanted to know what these areas did. https://www.americanprogress.org/?p=487317
Before I kick off into what we found, I want to say that this paper was the result of months of work by @alexandcart @savestomatopods @sung__chung Carlos Rivera Lopez (not on Twitter), and me. The data were not easy to find, compile, and interpret.
Here's what we found. Federally designated "essential fish habitat” - areas where fish reproduce & grow to catchable size - are critical. But very few of these sites are protected at all, and of those, 75% are only *minimally* protected.
And areas that lack fisheries-driven habitat protections ALSO lack marine protected areas. 71% of all U.S. ocean areas protected from fishing are located in the Pacific Ocean.
Scientists say we must protect 30% of all lands & waters by 2030 to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. Yet this critical tool for protecting fish habitat is going unused. Read our report to see how to fix this & improve ocean health: https://www.americanprogress.org/?p=487317 /fin
