Chile has designated the world’s largest marine park — at 740,000 square kilometers, or about the size of the entire nation of Chile. Known as Rapa Nui, the park will safeguard at least 142 endemic marine species, including 27 facing extinction.
“Extractive industries and industrial fishing will be banned inside the reserve, but the Rapa Nui will be allowed to continue their traditional artisanal fishing on small boats, using hand lines with rocks for weights,” says The Guardian. Almost 77 percent of all the species found in the Pacific Ocean live within the park’s limits, including top predators like “scalloped hammerhead sharks, minke, humpback and blue whales, and four species of sea turtle,” according to The Guardian.