The Chagos anemonefish is found only in the Chagos Archipelago. Located in the central Indian Ocean 1,000 miles south of India, the isolated Chagos Archipelago is a chain of more than 50 islands with a remarkable diversity of 220 coral species and 750 species of fish. Photo ~ Charles Sheppard

Grant Recipient 2010: Pew Environment Group,
Global Ocean Legacy

The Pew Environment Group, the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, created Global Ocean Legacy to protect and preserve some of the Earth’s most important and unspoiled marine ecosystems.  By establishing highly protected, oceanic-scale reserves, where no extractive activity is allowed, Global Ocean Legacy is working to halt the unrelenting pressure from industrial overfishing that threatens the world’s oceans and to highlight that oceans require the same type of ecosystem protection as the Earth’s terrestrial environment.

Hawksbill turtle on seaward reef of Diego Garcia, Chagos Archipelago. At least 76 species listed in the IUCN's Red List of Endangered Species are found in the waters surrounding the Chagos Islands, such as Hawksbill and green turtles, bigeye tuna, thresher and blue sharks ~ Photo: Anne and Charles Sheppard

Global Ocean Legacy originated from work done by Pew in 2005–2006 to support the creation of a fully protected marine reserve in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  That effort resulted in the designation of the largest, at the time, permanent “no-take” marine reserve in the world.

Inspired by this success, Global Ocean Legacy went on to secure world scale, no-take marine reserves in the Marianas Trench and the Chagos Islands, and it continues to campaign for protection of Australia’s Coral Sea and New Zealand’s Kermadec Trench.  Global Ocean Legacy is now assessing the prospect of adding other very large no-take marine reserves by 2020, thereby creating the first generation of the world’s great marine parks.  These reserves will provide ocean-scale ecosystem benefits and help conserve our global marine heritage.

Partners supporting Global Ocean Legacy include the Oak Foundation, the Robertson Foundation, the Sandler Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Lyda Hill and the Waitt Foundation with additional support from the Tubney Charitable Trust.

Global Ocean Legacy Work

Commercial fishing around the Chagos Archipelago ended on October 31, 2010, making it the largest no-take marine reserve in the world. An estimated 60,000 sharks, an equivalent number of rays and potentially countless other species have been caught legally as by-catch in commercial fisheries each year in the Chagos, something that will be prevented as a result of the fishing ban.

Pew Environment Group Managing Director Josh Reichert discusses President George W. Bush’s designation in January, 2009 of three areas as marine national monuments. Within the areas now protected from energy extraction and commercial fishing is the Mariana trench, the deepest spot on earth.

Pew Charitable Trusts

In more than five decades as a private foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts honed an approach to social investing that emphasizes measurable results.  Initiatives in culture, education, the environment, health and human services, public policy, and religion have been among the institution’s major areas of emphasis.

In order to better carry out its core mission of serving the public interest, Pew changed its legal structure and began operating as an independent public charity in 2004.  This new status expands Pew’s ability to mobilize resources and empowers the organization to capitalize on new types of ventures and collaborations in its three broad areas of focus: (1) Informing the public on key issues and trends through independent, highly credible research and polling; (2) Advancing policy solutions on important issues facing the American public; and (3) Supporting the arts, heritage, health and well-being of our diverse citizenry and civic life, with particular emphasis on Philadelphia.

Resources/Media

Global Ocean Legacy Website
Pew Environment Group Website