St Martin’s Island declared marine protected area
The government has declared 1,743sqkm of the Bay of Bengal, including St Martin's Island in Cox's Bazar, a marine protected area.
Earlier, 590 hectares of the island had been announced an ecologically critical area.
Issuing a press release yesterday, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said the decision was taken to help prevent uncontrolled ships and motor boats, overfishing, dumping of waste and harmful chemicals in the sea, destruction of coral colonies and depletion of the area's biodiversity.
St Martin's Island is now the second, and by far the largest, marine protected area in the country.
According to The Wildlife Conservation Protection Act-2012, under which the declaration was made, no person shall harvest, destroy or collect any natural resources or disturb or threaten any wildlife, destroy their habitat and pollute watercourse. It will even restrict people from entering the area without permission from the authorities.
However, people will be able to enter the area with permission, perhaps by paying an entry fee, for study or investigation purposes on relevant and helpful subjects on wildlife, photography, research, and ecotourism.
The declaration will help the authorities concerned enforce laws to limit extraction of marine resources from this protected area, which will ultimately increase marine fish resources and aquatic animal breeding there, said the release.
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