New Caledonia government boosts marine protections within Natural Park of the Coral Sea

The government of New Caledonia recently announced that it would highly protect 10% of its ocean to safeguard ecologically important marine areas for sea turtles, sharks, dolphins, whales and seabirds.

A decade ago, New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France, located in the western Pacific Ocean, already established its entire 1.3-million-square-kilometer (502,000-square-mile) exclusive economic zone (EEZ) as a marine protected area (MPA) — an area known as the Natural Park of the Coral Sea. However, only 2.4% of this park was highly protected, where industrial activities like fishing, drilling and mining were prohibited. These activities were permitted in the remaining 97.6%.

https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/new-caledonia-expands-strictly-protected-coverage-of-its-swath-of-the-pacific/

Conservation groups press for moratorium on deep-sea mining ahead of UN meeting

Several environmental groups have urged a moratorium on deep-sea mining ahead of an international meeting in Jamaica where members of the United Nations (UN) will debate the issue amid fears over the first-ever license to harvest minerals from the ocean’s floor.

Monaco joined the growing list of 20 countries that have called for the moratorium ahead of the UN’s International Seabed Authority’s (ISA) meeting expected to last nearly two weeks.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4275145-environmental-groups-call-for-deep-sea-mining-moratorium-ahead-of-un-meeting/

Watchdog says USNPS is dragging its heels on disposable plastics ban

A dozen years after Coca Cola reportedly was behind the National Park Service delay in banning disposable water bottles at Grand Canyon National Park, the agency again is dragging its feet on implementing a plastics ban, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

According to the nonprofit organization, the Park Service's plan is "is weaker than any proposed by Interior Department agencies and would not produce visible progress until late this decade."

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2023/10/peer-why-national-park-service-dragging-its-feet-plastics