Helena Bonham Carter joins campaign to create marine reserves

Helena Bonham Carter (pictured right), Greta Scacchi and Gillian Anderson are campaigning to keep three of UK’s overseas water territories fully protected from loss of biodiversity.

More than 100 celebrities, environmentalists and scientists are urging the UK government to create marine reserves around waters near the Ascension Island, the Pitcairn Islands and South Georgia as well as the Sandwich Islands fully protected.

The Marine Reserves Coalition campaign is led by the Blue Marine Foundation and the UK government is currently considering the proposal.

If these areas were protected it would assist the safe-guarding of more than 1.75 million kilometres squared of ocean.

Approximately 94 per cent of UK’s biodiversity is found in its overseas territories and some species are found nowhere else in the world. Therefore, the campaign will be highly beneficial for the wildlife surrounding the waters near the Ascension Island, the Pitcairn Islands and South Georgia as well as the Sandwich Islands.

Bonham Carter who supports the campaign, said “We all have a responsibility to try and return our world to the next generation in the state we inherited it, not worse. It would be a sad thing if in our dotage we’d be describing tuna fish to our grandchildren like we do a dodo today”.

The Blue Marine Foundation has argued that the protection of the water will cost very little, protect huge expenses of the ocean from loss of biodiversity while also contributing to meeting global targets to protecting the ocean.

Chairman of the Blue Marine Foundation, Charles Clover, said “If we are serious about reversing the problem of overfishing in the world’s oceans all agree we need large marine reserves. Britain has probably the biggest global opportunity to create them in strategic places – including the first major one on the tropical Atlantic. It has 14 overseas territories and it should be thinking about protecting large areas in as many of them as possible”.