THE SPRATLY ISLANDS - A MARINE PARK

The Spratly Islands encompass a dense system of several hundred coral reefs in the most biodiverse of the world's seas. They serve as breedi ng grounds for a wide variety of organisms including sea turtles, bird s, marine mammals, and tuna. A study of pelagic larval survival times and current patterns indicates that they may supply recruiting organis ms for marine ecosystems throughout the South China Sea. They may be o f growing importance in replenishing over-harvested stocks which provi de food and livelihood to coastal villagers in the Philippines, Taiwan , mainland China, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Strategic concerns and vague possibilities of hydrocarbon deposits have led each of these countries to station troops in the area, resulting in violent confrontations an d environmental stress. Future oil drilling could have widespread impa cts. A more sustainable-use strategy would be to freeze current claims on the islands and establish an international marine park. Such a par k would rival the Great Barrier Marine Park in size, number of reefs a nd biodiversity, and could generate on the order of USD 1 billion annu ally from tourism. Carefully managed, the park would safeguard substan tially-sized populations of tens of thousands of species, and help to ensure a steady supply of recruits to regional fisheries.