See the World's Newest Marine Park in the Pacific Ocean

Revillagigedo Archipelago

The Revillagigedo Archipelago sits off Mexico’s Pacific coast, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) west of the city of Manzanillo and 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Cabo San Lucas. With its rich ecological and geological landscape, the volcanic island chain was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016.

In the Pacific Ocean, a few hundred miles south of the Mexican resort town of Cabo San Lucas, four volcanic islands peak above the ocean surface to form the Revillagigedo Archipelago. The uninhabited islands—Socorro, Claríon, San Benedicto, and Roca Partida—and their neighboring seamounts (underwater mountains) together form a critical waypoint on a superhighway of marine life in the Pacific.

The best way to ensure the health of our oceans is to protect marine species and their habitats. But that’s challenging, because ocean species—especially migratory ones such as whales, sharks, and sea turtles—navigate an onslaught of fishing hooks, nets, and plastic pollution during annual migrations of hundreds and even thousands of miles. On this complex highway, areas where migratory species can safely gather to rest, feed, and breed, such as fully protected marine reserves, become critical to their survival.