Marae Moana — Cook Islands' Whole-EEZ Marine Park Amid Deep-Sea Mining Tensions

On 13 July 2017, the Cook Islands Parliament passed the Marae Moana Act, legally designating the country's entire Exclusive Economic Zone — roughly 1.9 million km2, one of the largest ocean areas ever placed under a single protective framework — as a multiple-use marine park. Within it, 50-nautical-mile no-take zones around each of the 15 islands place about 16% of the EEZ under strict protection, exceeding the Convention on Biological Diversity's 10% Aichi target.
Governance structure: the park is overseen by a Marae Moana Coordination Office and a multi-stakeholder council with government, traditional leaders, NGO and community representation, intended to balance conservation with continued fishing, shipping and resource-development activity across the rest of the EEZ.
Tension with extraction policy: since 2022, the Cook Islands government has issued licences for deep-sea mineral (polymetallic nodule) exploration within Marae Moana, prompting sustained opposition documented by Greenpeace, Mongabay and local media, and warnings — cited in seafloor research reporting — that mining vehicle tracks can reduce deep-sea species counts by 30-40% in affected areas. The case illustrates a live governance conflict between a headline conservation designation and subsequent extractive licensing within the same protected area, rather than an unambiguous conservation success.

Read the full analysis: https://bigoceanmanagers.org/marae