Page 62 - Navy Journal 219

Navy Journal 2019

Seasonal: MPAs that offer protection during specific time periods depending
upon some requirement.
Rotating: Though very rare, but includes those MPAs that move between
particular geographic areas
Genesis of MPA

The world's first MPA was probably the Fort Jefferson National Monument
designated in 1935 in Florida, covering 18850 hectare (ha) of sea and 35 ha of
land (Gubbay, 1995). However, according to Jones, (2002), the world’s first
official MPA was established in 1925 at Glacier Bay, Alaska, which incorporated
coastal waters important for whale and seal communities. The designation of
MPAs is relatively slow as only 125 was recognized by 1974 (Bjorklund, 1974)
and 1,306 by 1994 (Kelleher et al., 1995). As on 10 February 2019, there are 14,
841 MPAs covering 7.47% or 27,061,861 km area of the world against around
2
245449 terrestrial protected areas covering 14.9% of the world’s land area as
listed by the IUCN in 2019 (UNEP-WCMC, IUCN and NGS, 2018, Last updated
Jan 2109 in website). Whereas, our SoNG-MPA excluding Marine Reserve Area
(MRA) covers only 1.50% of the total marine area of our country.
Distinctiveness of MPA Compared to Land Protection Area

Marine ecosystems do not have distinct boundaries as in the case of land
protected areas. The physical features of the sea such as sea temperature,
currents, salinity, tectonic features, etc are common in a wider area which has
direct effect from area far distance away from a targeted area. On the contrary, in
case of terrestrial ecosystems, it has relatively distinct physiographic boundaries,
e.g., landscape features and geological changes. Hence, a wider spatial planning
is necessary for MPA implementation (Jones, 2002).

Present Status of SoNG-MPA
According to section 16 of Wildlife Act 2012, after the declaration of the
MPA, the necessary regulatory arrangements for prohibition of illegal fishing,
prevention of pollution from ships, other restrictions and instructions were
expected from respective government department for conservation of the target
species in the SoNG-MPA. Though concerned agency is working with this,
however, notable progress regarding MPA implementation/management details
are yet to be published (Karim & Uddin, 2019).

54