A global collaboration, led by the Australian National University with the United Nations, and between many scientists has tracked over 12,000 marine animals from whales to turtles to create one of the most detailed movement maps of ocean giants ever assembled.
The project, MegaMove, highlights how animal migrations intersect with fishing, shipping, and pollution, revealing alarming gaps in current ocean protections. Even if 30% of the oceans were protected, most critical habitats would still be exposed to threats.
The research also links to UN Sustainable Development Goals Goal 14 on water, and specifically, to Goal A of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to halt human-induced extinction of threatened species. The study’s lead author was the Research Director and Founder of MegaMove, Associate Professor Ana Sequeira of the Australian National University.
How marine megafauna move globally
The scientists tracked more than 100 species and identified ocean hotspots critical for protecting threatened marine megafauna that fall beyond current conservation zones.
The study reveals how marine megafauna move globally and where their migratory, feeding, and breeding behaviors intersect with human threats such as fishing, shipping, and pollution.
According to one contributor, Francesco Ferretti, a marine ecologist at Virginia Tech: “This is one of the largest marine tracking data sets ever assembled…It’s not just about drawing lines on a map. We need to understand animal behavior and overlap that with human activity to find the best solutions.”
U.S. example
Taking just one of the insights, relating U.S. coastal waters, the scientists revealed that past collapses of shellfish fisheries in North Carolina and impacts on seagrasses meadows, important for fisheries, carbon sequestration, and to prevent coastal erosion, show how predator loss can shift entire ecosystems.
Troubling findings
MegaMove was established to inform the United Nations’ 30×30 target: a global goal to protect 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030. The team used optimization algorithms to propose which areas should be prioritized for protection based on how marine species use the space.
But the findings show that even if all 30 percent of protected areas were perfectly placed, it would not be enough. This is partly because sixty percent of the tracked animals’ critical habitats would fall outside of these zones.
Current marine protection areas include only 8 per cent of the world’s total oceans, which the UN High Seas Treaty seeks to expand to 30 per cent.
The research appears in the journal Science, titled “Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets.”
