The UK and Ascension Island Governments, along with the Blue Marine Foundation have announced the creation of a marine reserve in the Atlantic. An area of 234,291 sq. Km (90,460 sq. Miles) around Ascension Island has been set aside and the Bacon Foundation has donated a £300,000 grant to monitor and enforce the reserve’s provisions. The area was described as a “hope spot” by Dr. Silvia Earle and is home to “some of the largest marlin in the world, one of the largest populations of green turtles, significant colonies of tropical seabirds, the island’s own unique frigate bird and several endemic species of fish found nowhere else in the world, including the offensively named bastard cunningfish.”

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