Are We Protecting the Ocean Fast Enough?

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There has been an active campaign over
this past decade in the 2020s, the

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Ocean Decade, to protect 30% of land and
ocean by 2030, the 30 by 30 campaign.

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You've probably heard this a lot.

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You've probably heard this said.

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Some of you know what it is, especially
if you've been listening to this podcast.

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Some of you haven't known what
it was because you haven't been

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listening to this podcast, or you're
just not knowing, and that's fine.

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Even if you've listened to this
podcast and you haven't heard

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me talk about it, that's okay.

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I do have a lot of episodes out,
and I completely understand.

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But today we're gonna be talking
about the effectiveness so far,

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in 2026, of this campaign to
increase the amount of percentage,

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amount of area that is protected
in the ocean and on land by 2030.

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We are at an astonishing number compared
to what we were at in the 2010s, and

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it's something to celebrate, even though
we still have a lot of work to do.

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So we're gonna talk about
that on today's episode.

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This is the How to Protect the Ocean
podcast, where you are getting updates

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on your ocean news every weekday.

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If you enjoy this type of content, you're
new here, and you haven't followed the

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podcast yet, please follow, whether you're
on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music.

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Whatever you listen to this on, your
favorite podcast app, please follow

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that, 'cause the charts on each of those
podcast apps go up when you follow, and

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more people get to know about what we
are doing here on the podcast and here

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for the ocean, and the resources out
there to learn more about the ocean.

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And also, not just look at my podcast.

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Go out and look at other people's
podcasts about the ocean, 'cause they

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have some phenomenal ones out there.

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Highly recommend that you check those
out as well and just get knee-deep

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into the ocean, like knee-deep,
like, you know, waist-high deep.

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Anyway, uh, or even under it.

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Get in there.

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Get to know all of them.

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It'd be awesome.

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But hey, look, this is
what we do at the podcast.

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We talk about some of the optimism,
some of the progress that we've made,

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and we have made progress in global
protection of the ocean in terms of area.

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I'll put the caveats in after.

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But we have actually reached 10%
of the world's oceans that have

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been protected, like effectively.

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That is huge.

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Is it enough?

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No.

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We need to get to 30% by 2030.

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We have four years to do that.

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However, it is ramping up.

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And where we were a decade ago,
in 2016, we were not even close.

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We were at less than 1% of the
world's oceans that were protected.

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Now we are at 10%.

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And if you think about how big the
ocean is, that's a pretty big value.

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That's a huge, huge value
in terms of protection.

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And look, I've talked about 30 by 30.

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I've had criticisms about
30 by 30 because there's a

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lot of stuff that goes in.

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Like, what is a marine protected area?

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A marine protected area is an area in
the ocean that essentially is off limits

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to ideally fishing, ideally like mining,
drilling for oil and gas, all these types

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of extractive activities, even sometimes
to people like scientists and everybody,

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'cause they're full on reserve, because
they want the fish and they want the

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biodiversity in there to recoup, so
either for fisheries or biodiversity.

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And when you do that, these areas
are, they go through a process.

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Like, man, the process it goes through,
that could last a decade long just to

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get designated, and then it has to get
funded so it can continue to go and work

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and be enforced and everything like that.

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There's a process to go to make sure
that this marine protected area, this

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area that we wanna protect, is the
ultimate area that we wanna protect, and

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for specific reasons, whether it's like
local communities can get access to it,

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or fishing communities can get access
to it at certain times of the year,

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or they will benefit from the spillover
effect of larger fish and more fish

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that come out of a specific species, or
it's protecting a habitat that allows

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that particular species for fisheries
to do really well when it's undisturbed.

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So there's a lot of things that go
on with marine protected areas, and

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we need to have more of the ocean
dedicated to protected areas, so we need

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to increase it by 20% to get to 30%.

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But the fact that we got to 10% is
a huge win because, like I said, it

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takes so long to protect an ocean,
especially when you're looking at

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areas, and we're gonna see more with
the high seas, but areas where they're

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not necessarily managed by one nation.

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Anything within the 200 nautical
mile zone from coastline is usually

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the national waters of that country.

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So Canada has a 200 nautical mile along
its longest coastline in the world.

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And so nobody can kind of impede on that.

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No other nation can impede on that, and
Canada has its decision-making powers

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over that area underneath that surface.

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And so that's an
important aspect to think.

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But there are areas like Antarctica
that are managed by like 24,

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I think 24 different nations.

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So you need to get 24 different
nations to agree on something to

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put in a marine protected area like
the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area.

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Now, that took a while to get in because
we wanted to make sure that all the

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countries were on board for this, because
there was two, Russia and China, that

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were not on board for quite some time.

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But they eventually came to the table
and said, "Hey, you know what? We

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want this to happen." There are other
marine protected areas in Antarctica

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that have to go through and have been
up for being designated every year.

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They haven't gone through yet.

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Hopefully, one day those will go through.

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When?

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I don't know.

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But hopefully we get
closer and closer to that.

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It's a lot because what we're asking
people to do is take some of the most

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productive waters in the world and
not fish in them or not do any kind

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of extractive activities in them.

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And then there's a lot of people who
can benefit from having those extractive

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activities in the temporary moment.

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Because the reason why those areas are
protected because if you fish all of it

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or you destroy the habitats that allow
the fish to grow in it, then you are

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effectively dooming that area that was
so productive before and giving you lots

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of fish and giving lots of biodiversity
and stability so that fish and other

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animals can do well in those areas.

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You can attract sea turtles and whales
and dolphins and sharks and all these

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kind of animals that really stabilize
an ecosystem that we know as the ocean.

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And so, uh, not having marine
protected areas is not beneficial.

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Having those marine protected areas has
proven to work and increase the biomass

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and abundance of fish, especially of
commercially important fisheries, as

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well as other fish that are not even
used in fisheries, but it stabilizes

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the biodiversity within that area

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So, there's a lot, and I've talked
about the enforcement and everything

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like that, but the fact that we
were able to get 10% is wonderful.

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Now, one of the things that I've talked
to Angelo Villa Gomez, who's like a

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brother from another mother for me in
the marine conservation world, we have

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a podcast together that we do live every
Thursday, mostly every Thursday, depending

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on when we're busy or we're away.

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But it's called Polar Bears in
Flip-Flops, so check it out on YouTube.

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We had a conversation recently on our
last episode about the fact that coastal

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MPAs, like really close to the coast, are
needed for kelp areas and for reef areas

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and for seagrass areas and mangrove areas.

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But they're not gonna be that big
because they're small coastal areas.

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There might be many of them, but there
may not be one of these massive, massive,

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like biggest MPA in the world, if
you've seen any of those announcements.

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These are gonna be smaller, and they
might be connected biologically, and

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so there might be like a network of
them, but they're gonna be smaller.

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And does that, we were having like
this conversation, was like, does that

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contribute to the MPAs for the 2030?

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But it won't increase it by a lot.

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It may increase it by less than
0.1%, depending on the area of these

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and how fast they're gonna go in.

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But are they still needed?

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Because yes, I think that's the one
thing that 30 by 30 ignores, and one

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of the things that 30 by 30 doesn't
take into account is these smaller MPAs

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that are MPAs for habitats that have
huge implications for biodiversity,

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abundance of fisheries and other
important species that will scale into

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other areas outside of that habitat
when they're protected properly.

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Looking at these small MPAs
are extremely important.

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It's gonna require a lot of
local leaders and local heroes

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that will be able to do that.

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But those are where it's really gonna
count as well, because these coastal

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areas is what keeps all this biodiversity
and all this fisheries, 'cause

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eventually, with a lot of oceans, they
have different larval stages, and they

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have to be protected in these seagrass
areas, mangroves, kelp beds and all

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that kind of stuff, and salt marshes
and everything, where they can actually

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be built and they can scale in terms
of abundance and stuff and just go out

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into the ocean and keep it productive,
keep it stable in wherever they end up.

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And I think that's an important aspect.

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But it won't necessarily generate
a lot of percentage for the 30 x 30

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because they're looking for big areas.

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Now, I know at the beginning of
the episode, I said, "Look, we're

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less than four years away from
2030, and we're only at ten percent.

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We have twenty percent to go." My
prediction is we're gonna see a push

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over these next three and a half years
or so, and we are gonna see a lot

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more bigger MPAs go through because
countries wanna meet that biodiversity

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target of 30x30, that protection
target, which I think is great.

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My one concern about that, obviously,
I have a lot of concerns, but one

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of my concerns is the fact that,
hey, what if they aren't looking

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at what needs to be protected?

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If a lot of these places need five years
or 10 years to be designated properly when

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you're including all the rights holders
and stakeholders together, how are we

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gonna do that in three and a half years?

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Are they gonna be effective, or are they
just gonna end up being paper parks?

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That's the risk we run.

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But also from another standpoint,
it's like, hey, if we can get them up

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there, we can build on them later on.

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So my prediction is we're gonna see a
push in area that's gonna get protected.

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Are we gonna meet the thirty percent?

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I don't know.

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We might.

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But I hope so.

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But it also depends on the
quality of those thirty percent.

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But I'd love to hear
what you think about it.

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You can join my Patreon,
www.speakupforblue.com/patreon.

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You can join that.

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You can also get free
versions of the episode.

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We have one where it's just the
solo episodes, one where it is

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just the interviews that we do.

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It'll be like a Patreon
feed that comes through.

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Those are free to join.

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And if you wanna join me where we
meet once a month and we discuss ocean

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topics, you can join the community.

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I'll be posting stuff in there.

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We join the community, and we can
have a lot of conversations about

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the ocean, which I'm super pumped up.

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That's speakupforblue.com/patreon.

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If you wanna contact me otherwise,
my socials are in the show notes.

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And this has been another
wonderful episode of the How

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to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I am your host, Andrew Lewin.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.