Migratory paths for ocean animals and protected waters have little overlap, research says

Two new papers published in the journal Science suggest wildlife conservation areas in the oceans are not working as intended.

The studies found very little overlap between the actual paths of many migratory animals and protected waters.

The papers come as members of the United Nations meet for the 2025 Ocean Conference in France.

The study tracked position data of nearly 13,000 individual animals from 111 species. More than half of these are considered vulnerable or critically endangered.

It found the large migratory paths of many animals – like sharks, whales and sea birds – cross into less than 8% of protected waters.

“The paper underscores the importance of increasing protected areas in the ocean and doing it in a smart way, in other words, doing it based on what habitats are used by different types of species," said Arizona State University professor Leah Gerber. She co-authored a companion article to the research published in the same journal.

"Typically these protected areas are kind of locked in. It's like this is a protected area, but it suggests that you broaden our perspective of protected areas to be spatially flexible depending on the time of year," she said.

Gerber says the paper highlighted the need for multiple methods of conservation, such as hunting restrictions and wildlife tracking.