A stretch of Pacific Ocean so untouched that researchers compare it to diving in waters from a thousand years ago now has formal legal protection. The Marshall Islands government has established its first federal marine protected area, covering 48,000 square kilometers around two remote northern atolls — a milestone for a small island nation whose identity, economy, and survival are inseparable from the sea.
At a glance
- Marine sanctuary: The protected area spans the atolls of Bikar and Bokak and their surrounding deep seas, making it the Marshall Islands’ first federally designated marine protected area.
- Reef fish biomass: A five-year National Geographic Pristine Seas expedition found this region holds the highest reef fish biomass in the entire Pacific Ocean, along with exceptional coral cover and deep-sea shark populations.
- Traditional custodianship: The Utrik community has safeguarded these waters for generations — the new sanctuary formalizes and future-proofs protections that Indigenous stewardship already put in place.
What the expedition found
The science behind this decision is striking. Marine biologist Enric Sala led National Geographic’s Pristine Seas team in nearly 650 hours of diving across the Marshall Islands over five years, working alongside the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority.
Their findings placed Bikar and Bokak in a category of their own. Giant clams were found in extraordinary numbers. Deep-sea sharks — many of them threatened species globally — were abundant. The atolls recorded the highest coral cover in the central and western Pacific, and that coral showed unusual resilience to warming ocean temperatures.
Researchers also flagged a high likelihood of discovering previously unknown species of fish and invertebrates in the deeper waters surrounding the atolls. In a region where marine biodiversity is in sharp decline, these islands represent a rare living baseline.
A history written into the reef
The contrast with nearby waters makes the sanctuary’s value even clearer. The same expedition visited Bikini Atoll, where the U.S. conducted 23 nuclear bomb tests in the 1940s C.E. and 1950s C.E. What they found there was sobering: pulverized, dead reef with little living on it, decades after the last blast. Marine life has still not recovered.
Bikar and Bokak have been spared that history. Fishing and other extractive activities were already minimal — a result of generations of careful stewardship by the Utrik community, whose traditional knowledge forms the foundation of the Marshall Islands’ conservation framework.
That framework is now being formalized under a national strategy called Reimaanlok — a Marshallese word meaning “look toward the future.” The approach integrates coastal communities into ocean and land management decisions, explicitly centering Indigenous knowledge alongside scientific research. It is one of the more deliberate examples anywhere of traditional ecological knowledge being written directly into national conservation law.
Why this matters beyond the Marshall Islands
“The ocean as our ancestors knew it is vanishing,” said Hilda Heine, president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, in the announcement on Jan. 28, 2025 C.E. “Without sustainable ocean ecosystems, our economy, stability and cultural identity will collapse.”
That statement carries weight beyond rhetoric. The Marshall Islands sits among the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations — a low-lying archipelago between Hawaii and the Philippines whose highest points barely clear sea level. Protecting the ocean’s health is not an abstract environmental goal here. It is a matter of national survival.
The scientific consensus on marine protected areas holds that well-enforced no-take zones can significantly boost fish populations, accelerate reef recovery, and create refugia where ecosystems can adapt to warming. Sanctuaries like Bikar and Bokak also provide the kind of intact, unmodified baseline that researchers need to understand what healthy ocean systems actually look like — data that benefits conservation efforts worldwide.
Global momentum toward protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 C.E. under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework gives this announcement additional significance. Each new high-quality MPA moves that target closer to reality.
Challenges ahead
Enforcement remains the enduring challenge for marine protected areas everywhere, and the Marshall Islands — a small nation with limited resources spread across a vast ocean territory — is no exception. Remote location offers some natural protection, but monitoring deep-sea activity and deterring illegal fishing at scale will require sustained international support and funding. The strength of the Reimaanlok framework gives reason for cautious optimism, but formal designation is only the beginning.
What’s clear is that Bikar and Bokak now have a legal shield that didn’t exist before — and the communities, researchers, and leaders who fought for it have created something the ocean may well need to survive the century ahead.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Mongabay
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Ghana establishes a marine protected area at Cape Three Points
- Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
- The Good News for Humankind archive on marine conservation
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