With so many fish, some spill over into the waters beyond the reserve, where fishermen now catch many more than they did before the reserve was set up. Marine reserves clearly work. So why aren't there more of them? In truth, marine protection is decades behind wildlife protection on land. Take the islands of New Zealand. Beyond the farmed landscape are wild places where nature can flourish. More than a quarter of the country is set aside in national parks and other reserves. In contrast, less than 1% of the Pacific ocean is protected. Instead, it is divided up into fishing zones. Each island nation owns the fishing rights up to 200 miles offshore. Beyond these territorial waters are the so-called ''high seas''. Bounded by national waters, the high seas pockets of the western Pacific cover half a million square miles. The surrounding island nations would like these pockets to be declared marine reserves - safe havens where migratory fish can breed.


鱼这么多，使得有一些进入到了保护区外的水域。在那里渔民们现在捕到的鱼要多于保护区设立之前，海洋保护区显然起效了。那为什么不多设立一些呢？事实上，海洋保护区在保护野生生物方面 比陆地上落后数十年。以新西兰群岛为例，在耕种区之外是大自然可以蓬勃发展的荒野。超过四分之一的国土被留作国家公园和其他保护区。相比之下，只有不足1%的太平洋海域受保护。相反地，它被划分为多个捕捞区。每个岛国拥有在其海岸200英里内捕鱼的权利。这些领海之外是所谓的“公海”，被各国海域所包围。西太平洋的公海口袋形水域面积有五十万平方英里。周围的岛国希望这些“口袋”成为海洋保护区，洄游鱼类觅食的安全避难所。