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The British Indian Ocean Territory (The Chagos) has the most pristine tropical marine environment surviving on the planet. Its quarter of a million square miles is Britain’s greatest area of marine biodiversity by far. The UK Government and the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Administration are already committed to managing BIOT as if it were a World Heritage site and have enacted significant legislation to protect this globally important environment.
The Chagos Archipelago:Its Nature and the Future.
However a more robust and comprehensive framework for conservation is needed to meet future challenges from destructive impacts of pollution, unsustainable fishing, poaching, habitat degradation, imported invasive species, construction, or other forms of interference. Existing environmental safeguards should be strengthened to create a long-term conservation framework with the maximum international support. It would be a world class natural conservation area and a major contribution to ‘saving the planet’. Policy framework elements (some are already agreed but not implemented) could be:
The existing Ramsar (Wetlands Convention) Area should be extended first to the territorial waters (as already agreed by the Government in principle) and then to the whole Chagos Archipelago, with strict reserve areas for the priority biodiversity sites. The BIOT Environment Zone (created in 2004) should be completed.
A comprehensive Chagos marine and fisheries management and conservation system should be established, to include a ‘no-take’ fishing zone, building on the proposal already included in the approved Chagos Management Plan.
This would increase Indian Ocean fish stocks and thus benefit people in neighbouring countries.
A small, fixed scientific research facility should be established, perhaps on Diego Garcia with a simple facility on a northern Chagos island.
A programme of further habitat improvement should be implemented, particularly on previously inhabited islands now degraded by invasive species, notably black rats and imported vegetation.
A sustainably funded, small organisation (perhaps a Public Foundation) should be established by the Government, with effective support from other organisations, to manage and conserve the natural marine and terrestrial environment and biodiversity of BIOT, as well as the related science, research and education. Experience should be drawn from best practice in other comparable protected natural areas in the world.
Wider international support should be promoted for a comprehensive Chagos Archipelago Reserve Area, using existing protocols such as Ramsar and World Heritage.
No-take fisheries conservation areas
Fishers have killed over 90% of all the fish in the planet’s seas, most to eat, but fully 20% are discarded into the sea as waste.1 Attempts to manage fisheries to sustain this bountiful source of protein have in the main been abject failures. Fishers have systematically killed the larger animals such as whales and then moved down the size scale until only small and immature fish survive. When catching these becomes unprofitable, new species of fish are hunted in far away parts of the high seas using every modern technique. Species after species have been all but wiped out.
In the process, bottom trawl nets, ever bigger, have almost completely destroyed fish habitats. In these areas bare sand, gravel and mud is all that is left where once existed forests of vegetation and coral sheltering myriads
Nearly all has been lost, but in the last 30 years it has been shown conclusively that the setting up of No Take Zones, from which nothing can be removed or extracted by humans, allows fish to recover remarkably quickly. Not only do the fish recover but also the fishers adjacent to the zones see their takes rise. For sustained recovery it has been shown that at least 30% of fish habitats need to be systematically protected. This is commonly called the ‘One Third Rule’.
To its credit, the BIOT Government in drawing up the Chagos Conservation Management Plan accepted in principle the need for No Take Zones. In 2007 a study funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, based on information obtained during research in 2006, provided for the zones to be accurately delineated and this has been done. The necessary legislation will follow. The proposed no-take areas mainly adjoin islands which are already designated Strict Nature Reserves on account of their huge bird populations.
This is expected to be sufficient to conserve the fish, particularly for inshore fishers. The area thus protected is likely to ensure that good stocks of reef fish continue indefinitely.
"Ocean Legacy project is looking at opportunities to protect surviving world-class marine systems. The Chagos Archipelago is a rare gem in an increasingly populated region whose shores and waters are already over-exploited and heavily degraded".
The massacre of Indian Ocean sharks
 Sharks, being at the top of the food chain, are very important for the marine biodiversity of British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) waters. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation data shows that in the Indian Ocean generally, shark numbers are down by about 90% over the last 30 years because of over fishing, and diver observation data in Chagos waters shows that a similar decline has taken place here. In BIOT Administration, management measures prohibit targeted shark fishing, but unfortunately they are caught by poachers and as by-catch by licensed fishers of other species. If this happens, finning is expressly banned and the sharks must be landed whole or released.
However, small fishing boats mainly based in Sri Lanka, continue to come to Chagos waters risking a £100,000 fine and the confiscation of boat and equipment.
Shark fins are also an important part of the “pay” of otherwise poorly paid crews of tuna fishing vessels and this tempts some to set the lines to “accidentally” catch sharks. The fins are removed and the bodies are dumped. Dried shark fins are a high value commodity, sold on to traders and used to make shark fin soup in Japan and China.
The BIOT’s patrol vessel Pacific Marlin, managed by Marine Resources Assessment Group Ltd, catches poachers, but with over half a million square kilometres to cover it has a difficult task. However, some dramatic arrests are made as can be seen from the disheartening photograph, but too late for these unfortunate sharks. In this case the fishing boat was destroyed.
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