Marine Protected Areas

For years conservation of parts of the world ocean single was considered insignificantfor the vast area of the ocean. Gradually it became obvious that oceans are exposed to impacts other than in the open area. The coastal area development, construction of navigation channels, little controlled fishing and unorganized tourism – these are forms of local human activities that negatively impact marine environment.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are developed in order to reduce such impacts. Today there are more than 3000 marine protected areas in the world. Human activities are limited and carefully regulated in these areas. Scientific researchis conducted in protected areas biological stations.

At present only one mostly marine protected area – the Far Eastern Marine Reserve - has been created in Russia, while about 100 reserves and national parks has been created on land.

Nevertheless, the following land reserves protect marine areas as part of their total area: Astrakhansky, Dagestansky, Kandalakshsky, Nenetsky, Bolshoy Arctic, Taimyrsky, Ust-Lensky, Magadansky, Poronaysky, Koryaksky, Komandorsky, Kronotsky, Dzhugdzhursky, Kurilsky, Sikhote-Alinsky and “Vrangel Island” reserves.

Marine protected areas are within some federal game reserves such as: “Frantz-Josef Land”, Nizhne-Obsky, Uzhno-Kamchatsky and “Malye Kurils”.

The total area of marine areas defined as MPAsis close to 9.1 thousand km2, which covers 1.8% of Russian Federation continental shelf.

There is another form of marine areas conservation – protection of marine mammals’ habitat. Such areas are protected by the federal department of fish industry. By strict regulations some of them approach status of MPAs.