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The UK government has announced plans to create a marine reserve in the waters around Ascension Island, which is located in the South Atlantic Ocean about midway between Africa and the horn of South America. Ascension Island is part of the British Overseas Territory that includes Saint Helena island and the Tristan da Cunha archipelago.

The reserve is home to some of the world’s largest marlin, one of the biggest populations of green turtles, and large colonies of tropical seabirds. The protected area will occupy an area of almost 235,000 square kilometers (around 90,000 square miles), which is just a little less than the size of the UK. Just over half of the reserve will be closed to fishing, while the other half will be a policed fishery.

The announcement was welcomed by the Great British Oceans Coalition, which has been campaigning since 2014 for the protection of Ascension’s waters. Charles Clover, chairman of the Blue Marine Foundation, which is part of the coalition, said: “Ascension has been at the frontiers of science since Charles Darwin went there in the 19th century, so it is entirely appropriate that it is now at the centre of a great scientific effort to design the Atlantic’s largest marine reserve.”

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