Hope Spots are ecologically unique areas of the ocean designated for protection under a global conservation campaign overseen by Mission Blue, a non-profit organization founded by

Sylvia Earle Sylvia Alice Earle (born August 30, 1935) is an American marine biologist, oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer. She has been a National Geographic Explorer at Large (formerly Explorer in Residence) since 1998. Earle was the first fem ...

with her 2009 TED prize wish. Hope Spots can be

Marine Protected Areas A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area of the world's seas, oceans, estuary, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human ...

(MPA) that need attention or new sites. They are chosen for their contributions to biodiversity, the

carbon sink A carbon sink is a natural or artificial carbon sequestration process that "removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere". These sinks form an important part of the natural carbon cycle. An overar ...

, and important habitat. Hope Spot status is intended to alleviate the pressures human resource extraction places on the ocean by making the site higher priority to become an MPA, where resource extraction, like fishing and drilling, may be forbidden under law. There are 140 Hope Spots worldwide (as of June,2022). An additional 22 nominations for Hope Spots are currently under consideration and three nominations have been deferred. At the time of Earle's wish, less than 1% of the ocean was protected. Earle advocated for the creation of a system of parks like the

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

system in the United States. The goal of the Hope Spot campaign is raise public support, gain the attention of leaders and policy makers, and ultimately create enough Hope Spots to protect 20% of the ocean by 2020.

Nominations process

Since September 9, 2016, nominations for Hope Spots have been open to the public. Following the completion of the Hope Spot nomination form found on Mission Blue's website, a proposed Hope Spot is evaluated to assess its validity. The Hope Spots Council, composed of marine scientists and policy experts, examine new nominations twice a year and choose which sites to designate as Hope Spots.

Partnerships

Mission Blue has partnered with the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) and receives support from

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

Rolex Rolex () is a Swiss watch brand and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as ''Wilsdorf and Davis'' by German businessman Hans Wilsdorf and his eventual brother-in-law Alfred Davis in London, the company registered ''Rolex ...

, and

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

. To increase access and promote the campaign, Google has added Hope Spots to its platform enabling users to explore the sites. A Google-powered map of Hope Spots can be found on Mission Blue's website.

Council members

* Carl Gustaf Lundin * Dan Laffoley * Dr. Ameer Abdulla * William N. Kostka * Dr. Lance Morgan * Kathy Walls * Dr. Sebastian Troëng * Sandra Bessudo Lion * Rili Djohani * Dr. Claudio Campagna * Kristina Gjerde * Sabine Jessen

Hope Spots

Atlantic Ocean

* Abrolhos Bank *

Aguadilla, Puerto Rico Aguadilla (, ), founded in 1775 by Luis de Córdova, is a Aguadilla barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality located in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, north of ...

– nomination to be considered *

Ascension Island Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overs ...

Baffin Bay Baffin Bay (Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; ; ; ), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes considered a s ...

– nomination under consideration * Bahamian Reefs *

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy () is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its tidal range is the highest in the world. The bay was ...

* Cape Whale Coast (

Hermanus Hermanus (; originally called ''Hermanuspietersfontein'', but shortened in 1902 as the name was too long for the postal service

) * Cashes Ledge * Charlie-Gibbs fracture zone * Chichiriviche de la Costa * Choroni & Chuao * Coastal Southeast Florida
Corales de Varadero / Varadero's Coral Reef
* Cozumel Reef and the

Mayan Riviera The Riviera Maya () is a tourism and resort district south of Cancun, Mexico. It straddles the coastal Mexican Federal Highway 307, Federal Highway 307, along the Caribbean Sea, Caribbean coastline of the Mexican state, state of Quintana Roo, lo ...

* East Portland Fish Sanctuary * Egg Island *

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans: ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarc ...

* Farm Pond – nomination under consideration * Gardens of the Queen * George Town Harbor,

Grand Cayman Grand Cayman is the largest of the three Cayman Islands and the location of the territory's capital, George Town, Cayman Islands, George Town. In relation to the other two Cayman Islands, it is approximately 75 miles (121 km) southwest of L ...

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea (French language, French: ''Golfe de Guinée''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Golfo de Guinea''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Golfo da Guiné'') is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez i ...

* Gulf of Mexico Deep Reefs * Hatteras * Kosterfjorden/ Yttre Hvaler * Mesoamerican Reefs *

Molasses Reef Molasses Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in Florida, United States. It lies to the southeast of Key Largo, within the Key Largo Existing Management Area, which is immediately to the east of John Pe ...

– nomination under consideration *

Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; , or ) is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of the north of Scotland. It is the largest firth in Scotland, stretching from Duncans ...

– nomination under consideration *

Mosquito Lagoon Mosquito Lagoon is a body of water located on the east coast of Florida in Brevard County, Florida, Brevard and Volusia County, Florida, Volusia counties. It is part of the Indian River Lagoon system and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. It exte ...

Patagonian Shelf The Patagonian Shelf — sometimes referred to as Argentine Shelf — is part of the South American continental shelf belonging to the Argentine Sea on the Atlantic seaboard, south of about 35°S. It adjoins the coasts of Argentina and Urugu ...

* Saint Vincent & the Grenadines Marine Area *

Sargasso Sea The Sargasso Sea () is a region of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by four currents forming an ocean gyre. Unlike all other regions called seas, it is the only one without land boundaries. It is distinguished from other parts of the Atlantic Oc ...

* Southeast Shoal of the Grand Banks * The North Atlantic Ocean within the New York Bight – nomination under consideration *

Wadden Sea The Wadden Sea ( ; ; or ; ; ; ) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of low-lying Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tida ...

– nomination under consideration

Arctic Ocean

* Central Arctic Ocean *

Gakkel Ridge The Gakkel Ridge (formerly known as the Nansen Cordillera and Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge) is a mid-oceanic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is located in the Eurasian Basin of t ...

* Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS) – nomination under consideration *

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

Indian Ocean

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a mari ...

* Atlantis Bank * Black River District Hope Spot *

Chagos Archipelago The Chagos Archipelago (, ) or Chagos Islands (formerly , and later the Oil Islands) is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmo ...

* Coral Seamount * Grand Récif de Toliara *

Houtman Abrolhos The Houtman Abrolhos (often called the Abrolhos Islands) is a chain of 122 islands and associated coral reefs in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia about west of Geraldton, Western Australia. It is the southernmost true coral r ...

– nomination under consideration * Houtman Abrolhos Islands – nomination under consideration * Karai Challi Island – nomination deferred *

Knysna Knysna (; ) is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It is situated 60 kilometres east of the c ...

Lakshadweep Islands Lakshadweep () is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands divided into three island subgroups: the Amindivi Islands in the north, the Laccadive Islands (separated from Amindivi roughly by the 11th parallel north), and ...

* Maldive Atolls *

Mergui Archipelago The Mergui Archipelago (also Myeik Archipelago or ''Myeik Kyunzu''; ) is located in far southern Myanmar (Burma) and is part of the Tanintharyi Region. It consists of around 800 islands, varying in size from very small to hundreds of square kilo ...

* Musandam Peninsula – nomination under consideration * Outer Seychelles * Plett *

Quirimbas Islands The Quirimbas Islands lie in the western Indian Ocean off northeastern Mozambique, close to Pemba, the capital of the province of Cabo Delgado. The archipelago consists of about 32 islands, including Ibo, Matemo, Medjumbe, Quirimba, Metund ...

* The

Agulhas Agulhas (''needles'' in the Portuguese language — or ) may refer to: * Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa * L'Agulhas, a town near the Cape * Cape Agulhas Lighthouse, located at the Cape * Cape Agulhas Local Municipality, the municipa ...

Front * Walter's Shoal

Mediterranean Sea

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

* Grotte di Ripalta – nomination under consideration * Island of

Sardinia, Italy Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia and 16.45 km south of the French island of ...

– nomination under consideration * Mushroom, Halat – nomination under consideration *

Syvota Syvota (, , before 1927: Βώλια - ''Volia'', 1927-1940: Μούρτος - ''Mourtos'') is a village and a former municipality in Thesprotia, Epirus, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Igoumenitsa, of ...

– nomination under consideration * Vatika Bay – nomination under consideration *

Venetian Lagoon The Venetian Lagoon (; ) is an enclosed bay of the Adriatic Sea, in northern Italy, in which the city of Venice is situated. Its name in the Italian and Venetian languages, ' (cognate of Latin ' ), has provided the English name for an enclosed, ...

– nomination under consideration

Pacific Ocean

Beagle Channel Beagle Channel (; Yahgan language, Yahgan: ''Onašaga'') is a strait in the Tierra del Fuego, Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, on the extreme southern tip of South America between Chile and Argentina. The channel separates the larger main island of I ...

– nomination under consideration *

Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...

Deep Canyons * California Seamounts and Ridges – nomination under consideration * Central American Dome * Chilean Fjords & Islands *

Chiloé National Park Chiloé National Park is a national park of Chile, located in the western coast of Chiloé Island, in Los Lagos Region (region of the lakes). It encompasses an area of divided into two main sectors: the smallest, called Chepu, is in the commune ...

Expansion *

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down t ...

Coral Triangle The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ...

* Core of the

South Pacific Gyre The Southern Pacific Gyre is part of the Earth's system of rotating ocean currents, bounded by the Equator to the north, Australia to the west, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to the south, and South America to the east. The center of the South ...

* Coron Bay – nomination under consideration * Golfo Dulce,

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

* Eastern Pacific Seascape * Emperor Seamount Chain * French Overseas Territories (

Wallis & Futuna Wallis and Futuna, officially the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands (), is a French island collectivity in the South Pacific, situated between Tuvalu to the northwest, Fiji to the southwest, Tonga to the southeast, Samoa to the east, ...

) *

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

Gulf of the Farallones Gulf of the Farallones is a gulf of the Pacific Ocean off the northern California coast. It extends westward from the opening of the San Francisco Bay and Drakes Bay to the Farallon Islands. Most of the gulf lies in Gulf of the Farallones Nationa ...

Hecate Strait Hecate Strait (; Haida language: ''K̲andaliig̲wii'', also ''siigaay'' which means simply "ocean") is a wide but shallow strait between Haida Gwaii and the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It merges with Queen Charlotte Sound to the south a ...

& Queen Charlotte Sound Glass Sponge Reef *

Kermadec Trench The Kermadec Trench is a linear ocean trench in the south Pacific Ocean. It stretches about from the Louisville Seamount Chain in the north (26°S) to the Hikurangi Plateau in the south (37°S), north-east of New Zealand's North Island. Togethe ...

Lord Howe Rise The Lord Howe Rise is a deep sea plateau which extends from south west of New Caledonia to the Challenger Plateau, west of New Zealand in the south west of the Pacific Ocean. To its west is the Tasman Abyssal Plain and to the east is the New Ca ...

Malpelo Island Malpelo is a small oceanic island in the eastern Pacific Ocean, located about west of the Colombian mainland with a military post manned by the Colombian Armed Forces. It consists of a sheer and barren rock with three high peaks, the highest ...

* Micronesian Islands * Misool Marine Reserve – nomination under consideration *

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by about 75 miles (120 km), accessible via California S ...

Moreton Bay Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources. The waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are ...

* Northeastern Hawaiian Islands – nomination under consideration * Osa Pelagic Dolphin Protected Area – nomination deferred * Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone *

Saanich Inlet Saanich Inlet (also Saanich Arm) is a body of salt water that lies between the Saanich Peninsula and the Malahat, British Columbia, Malahat highlands of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Located just northwest of Victoria, British Colum ...

and the Southern Gulf Islands * Salas Y Gómez and

Nazca Ridge The Nazca Ridge is a submarine ridge, located on the Nazca plate off the west coast of South America. This plate and ridge are currently subducting under the South American plate at a convergent boundary known as the Peru-Chile Trench at approxi ...

s *

Salish Sea The Salish Sea ( ) is a List of seas on Earth #Terminology, marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean located in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia and the States of the United States , U.S. state of Washingto ...

s – nomination deferred * Scott Islands *

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 wa ...

* The

White Shark Café The White Shark Café is a remote mid-Pacific Ocean area noted as a winter and spring habitat of otherwise coastal great white sharks. The area, halfway between Baja California and Hawaii, received its unofficial name in 2002 from researchers at ...

* Tribugá Gulf * Tropical Pacific Sea of Peru * Western Pacific Donut Holes (four enclaves)

Southern Ocean

* East Antarctic Peninsula *

Ross Sea The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who ...

Subantarctic The sub-Antarctic zone is a physiographic region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46th parallel south, 46° and 60th parallel south, 60° south of t ...

Islands and Surrounding Seas

References

{{Reflist

External links

Mission Blue – Hope Spots

TED Prize Winning Wishes – Mission Blue
Marine conservation

Nominations process

Partnerships

Council members

Hope Spots

Atlantic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

Indian Ocean

Mediterranean Sea

Pacific Ocean

Southern Ocean

See also

References

External links