loading . . . Mapping global shipless areas and conflict zones between shipping and marine biodiversity Those who know my work, now that I have had some scientific contributions to a branch of Conservation Biology related to the impacts of roads on wildlife, **Road Ecology**. Now, working in a research centre mostly devoted to marine science, I’ve broadened my research scope to include the impacts of _marine_ roads on _marine_ biodiversity.
This approach is exciting and challenging in many ways. For starters, in the ocean, there are no roads _per se_. **Terrestrial roads, actual roads, are physical things. Marine roads are fuzzy, not actually there**. On roads, we sometimes lack information on traffic intensity, on shipping lanes that’s all we have (I’ll stop calling it “marine roads” to make it simple, you get the analogy!). **On the sea, the transportation routes are defined by the density of ships in any given area (check outthis website). That’s the very definition of the transportation route.**
Source: https://globalmaritimetraffic.org/
**Other essential difference: on roads, we can see many of the impacts, such as the animals flattened by cars in the runway. On shipping lanes evaluating direct mortality is way more complex, the Ocean is a dynamic ever-moving system.**
The paper we just made available as a preprint, “**Mapping global shipless areas and conflict zones between shipping and marine biodiversity** “, presents a first approach to evaluating the effects of such a pervasive threat on marine biodiversity.
Shipping traffic is increasing, therefore these threats are likely to become even more serious in the future. Also, marine traffic will be affected by climate change (with new, polar, routes becoming available), political and military instability and other disturbances (e.g. piracy).
Here, we identified “**shipless areas** ” (**areas with minimal shipping activity**) by examining the overlap between shipping density and key marine taxa (cetaceans, sea turtles, pinnipeds, and seabirds). We also evaluated the extent to which these shipless areas and conflict zones are encompassed by Marine Protected Areas, Exclusive Economic Zones, and High Seas.
**Our findings reveal that shipless areas are mostly restricted to polar and remote oceanic regions**. We have designated “**Priority Preservation Areas** ” (regions where high biodiversity intersects with low vessel activity, in yellow in the image below) and “**Priority Mitigation Areas** ” (regions where high biodiversity intersects with intense vessel activity, in – sort of – red). We suggest that low-conflict zones should be maintained and that targeted mitigation strategies should be implemented in high-conflict zones.
This study highlights the**urgent need to take action to protect marine biodiversity from the threats of shipping**. We suggest a variety of mitigation strategies, such as traffic rerouting, speed reductions, and enhanced protection measures.
By providing a comprehensive spatial and taxonomic framework, this study supports global efforts to balance maritime trade with marine biodiversity conservation. I hope you find this interesting!
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### _Related_ https://geekcologist.wordpress.com/2025/02/26/mapping-global-shipless-areas-and-conflict-zones-between-shipping-and-marine-biodiversity/
