Mongabay · Climate & nature

Marine Rewilding: A New Approach to Ocean Health

Researchers propose marine rewilding as an active recovery strategy for stressed ocean ecosystems, moving beyond traditional conservation methods like marine protected areas.

Marine rewilding aims to restore ecological processes and create self-sustaining ocean ecosystems, acknowledging that human involvement is integral to the process, unlike terrestrial rewilding.

Key principles include restoring food webs, potentially by reintroducing apex predators. An example is a project releasing leopard sharks into Raja Ampat, Indonesia, to balance the coral reef ecosystem.

Strengthening connectivity between marine habitats like coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass meadows is crucial for gene flow, recolonization, and maintaining ecosystem services.

This approach helps create resilient ecosystems capable of adapting to climate change and pollution.

Other principles involve mitigating pollution, managing invasive species, and continuous monitoring to adapt conservation efforts.

The ultimate goal is to rebuild biodiversity and ecological function, recognizing coastal communities as part of marine ecosystems.

The aim is not to recreate past ecosystems but to enhance current ones for self-sustainability and resilience to future disturbances.

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