Global foundation17 countries mappedConservation geography

Marine Protected Areas

Explore the protected ocean

Protected Ocean Atlas

Protection has a place—and a story.

Move from ocean scale to individual protected places. Learn why each area exists, how it is governed, what lives there, and what the evidence says about its condition.

Search protected placesOceanCountryLegal statusEstablishedEvidence coverageCondition signalHabitatProfile coverageZone controlsMap detail

Canada · DFOUnited States · NOAAAustralia · Parks AustraliaNew Zealand · DOCUnited Kingdom · JNCCSouth Africa · DFFEFrance · OFBNordic & western Europe · EEA national reportsOfficial national datasets and nationally reported European boundaries; regulations and legal instruments take precedence.

Boundaries are visual representations for information purposes. Applicable regulations provide legally authoritative coordinates. Dataset: National and regional protected-area sources. Basemap: OpenStreetMap.

4763 protected areas · loading map index…

Evidence before inference

Designation is not the same as protection.

MLL reports legal status, activity controls, management implementation and ecological condition separately. Unknown remains unknown until suitable evidence supports a conclusion.

Legal protection

Whether an enforceable designation is in force, interim or proposed.

Protection in practice

Activity controls, management and enforcement evidence are reported separately.

Ecological evidence

Evidence period, indicators, geographic scope and confidence stay attached to every conclusion.