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Safe Haven

Clouds of buestreak fusiliers swarm over giant “plates” of tabletop coral (Acropora spp.) on the reefs at South Brother Island in the Chagos Archipelago. During a recent coral coring expedition with the Living Ocean Foundation, WHOI scientists were often enveloped in schools so dense it was difficult to see each other. The Chagos Archipelago Marine Protected Area was created in 2010 and, at 640,000 square kilometers (250,000 square miles), is the largest no-take marine reserve in the world. The lack of fishing pressure has enabled the size, diversity, and abundance of fish populations in the reserve to explode in recent years.(Photo by Konrad Hughen, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)