The Marshall Islands government has announced it will protect an area of the Pacific Ocean described as one of the most “remote, pristine” marine ecosystems on Earth.

The 48,000-square-kilometer (18,500-square-mile) marine sanctuary covers two of the country’s northernmost uninhabited atolls, Bikar and Bokak, and the surrounding deep sea, and it is the first federal marine protected area (MPA) established by the Pacific Island nation nestled between Hawaii and the Philippines.

“The ocean as our ancestors knew it is vanishing,” Hilda Heine, the president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, said in a press statement announcing the measure on Jan. 28. “Without sustainable ocean ecosystems, our economy, stability and cultural identity will collapse. The only way to continue benefiting from the ocean’s treasures is to protect it.”  

Fishing and other extractive activities, which were already minimal due to generations of custodianship by the Utrik community, will now be strictly forbidden, future-proofing the area against threats and formalizing protections.

The area is teeming with rare and endangered marine wildlife, including green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and fish species such as the Napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) and the bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum). Researchers also noted there is a high potential for discovering new species of fish and invertebrates in the deep seas.

In the lead-up to the MPA’s creation, National Geographic’s Pristine Seas team led by marine biologist Enric Sala, in collaboration the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, spent almost 650 hours diving in the Marshall Islands to study marine life as part of a five-year expedition across the Pacific.

Their findings were significant: The region had the highest reef fish biomass in the Pacific Ocean. Giant clams (Tridacna maxima) were found in huge numbers. Deep-sea sharks, many of which are threatened, were abundant. And the atolls not only had the highest coral cover in the central and western Pacific but were also found to be especially resilient to global warming.

“Bikar and Bokak’s coral reefs are a time machine, like diving in the ocean of 1,000 years ago,” Sala wrote in a press release. “They are our best baselines for what the ocean could look like if we truly let it be.” 

The expedition also visited neighboring Bikini Atoll, where the U.S. conducted 23 nuclear bomb tests in the 1940s and ‘50s, and found that marine life had still not recovered, noting the presence of “pulverized, dead reef with not much living on it.”

The federal government of the Marshall Islands, which reclaimed independence in 1983, is now incorporating traditional knowledge in its conservation strategy called Reimaanlok. The approach, which means “look toward the future” in Marshallese, includes coastal communities in decision-making processes on how to manage the nation’s oceans and land.

Banner image: The Marshall Islands’ new marine sanctuary will protect one of the most pristine areas of the Pacific Ocean. Image courtesy of Manu San Félix/National Geographic Pristine Seas.