This week, the island nation of Samoa declared that all of its surrounding waters will be designated as a shark sanctuary.
Illegal shark fishing will now be banned in the roughly 50,000 square miles surrounding the island.
“We will not sit idly by while the demand for shark products robs our future generations of these culturally, ecologically and economically valuable species,” Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele said. “Let us together continue to safeguard these imperilled species for our future generations.”
Samoa is the latest pacific island nation to take measures to sustain the ocean’s vital ecosystem, joining Palau, which created the world’s first shark sanctuary in 2009, Kiribati, Cook Islands, New Zealand and Tokelau.
