The press communiqué of the government of UK states that the nation is pondering to ban fishing around the U.K.-owned archipelago in the Indian Ocean – a cluster of 55 islands across about a quarter of a million square miles of ocean. This will create world’s largest marine reserve. Foreign Secretary David Miliband told that commercial fishing will be halted around the Chagos Islands to allow scientific research and the preservation of coral reefs and an estimated 60 endangered species.
Miliband assured that the move would not affect operations on the island of Diego Garcia, which Britain leases to the U.S. military for use as a base. Conservation groups and scientists welcomed the move to protect waters around the islands, reputedly some of the world’s cleanest ocean, and claimed it would become as important for research as the Great Barrier Reef or Galapagos Islands.
According to him the territory offers great scope for research in all fields of oceanography, biodiversity and many aspects of climate change, which are core research issues for U.K. science. Reacting to the decision Greenpeace activist Willie Mackenzie said that the creation of this marine reserve is a first step towards securing a better and sustainable future for the Chagos Islands.
