Ascension Island Conservation Project

Ascension Island is a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, a thousand miles from the nearest land. Since 2019, it has been home to a 100% marine protected area (MPA) of 445,000 sq. km — the second largest no-take zone in the Atlantic and one of the largest in the world.   

A mere one million years old, the island is the peak of an undersea volcano in the mid-Atlantic Ridge, whose upwellings are thought to be where life on Earth originated. Its waters are teeming with marine life, including sharks, some of the biggest marlin in the world and the Atlantic’s largest population of green turtles.  On land and inshore, the island boasts several endemic species, including ferns and fish, and Ascension’s own frigate bird.  

Timeline of success  

In 2019, the UK government agreed to support the call from the Ascension islanders to create a 100% MPA in Ascension’s waters. Later that year, the Ascension Island government announced its designation. This took the total amount of protection in British waters from 26% to 32%, exceeding the UK’s 2018 target of protecting at least 30%.   

In 2021, Blue Marine established the Ascension Island Marine Protected Area Community Trust fund (AIMPACT), thanks to a generous donation from visionary shipbuilder Peter Lürssen. The fund aims to ensure that, as well as the marine life, the 800 or so people who live and work on Ascension also benefit from the MPA.  

In 2023, Blue Marine CEO, Clare Brook, and Director of Projects, Dr. Judith Brown, travelled to Ascension to ensure that money accumulated by the AIMPACT fund (thanks to the sustainable futures team at Liontrust) was being spent on things the island community would most like. 

Impact  

Through the collaboration of the Ascension Island government, people and Council, Blue Marine and its partners at the Great Blue Ocean coalition, and the UK Government, in 2019, Ascension created one of the most effectively monitored no-take MPAs in the world, entirely free from industrial fishing.   

Today the green turtles who come to lay their eggs on Long Beach, in the last stages of their journey from Africa, no longer have to negotiate thousands of baited hooks from long-liners. Swordfish, sailfish, marlin, sharks, tuna, and myriad other fish can breed and proliferate in Ascension’s waters. In the heavily fished Atlantic, it is an oasis. 

Cover photo by Paul Colley.