London, Oct 3 (ANI): In a bid to end commercial fishing of sharks across a huge area of the Pacific Ocean, the Marshall Islands government has decided to create the largest shark sanctuary in the world.
The protected area covers nearly 2 million sq. km. (750,000 sq miles) of the ocean, about eight times the size of Britain.
The move came as sharks are seriously threatened by fishing and habitat loss and approximately a third of ocean-going sharks are on the internationally recognised Red List of Threatened Species.
"The momentum for protecting these animals continues to spread across the globe," the BBC quoted Matt Rand from the Pew Environment Group as saying.
The Shark Protection Bill will ban commercial shark fishing and any trade in shark products and any fish caught accidentally will have to be released alive.
"In passing this shark protection bill, there is no greater statement we can make about the importance of sharks to our culture, environment and economy," Senator Tony deBrum, who co-sponsored the bill, said.
"Ours may be a small island nation, but our waters are now the biggest place sharks are protected," he stated.
The Marshallese government has worked on the plan for Whale shark the Sanctuary, which will swallow a huge chunk of the Pacific Ocean, with advisors from the Pew Environment Group, the US-based organisation that identified archipelago nations as providing big marine conservation "wins" because of the vast scale of their territorial waters. (ANI)
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