ABSTRACT
The importance of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to shield marine ecosystems against human-based environmental changes have become unanimous among scientists. However, currently only ≈ 7% of global oceans are protected. There is a recent view that only by protecting a minimum 30% of oceans, would one be able to guarantee a proper functioning of the global marine ecosystems. The contributions of seabirds to the identification of conservation priorities are huge if one considers the vast literature on the topic. Seabirds generally target productive and rich marine ecosystems, and using data on seabird spatial ecology is especially useful to identify key marine habitats to protect. As seabirds usually depend on large areas, any design of reserve to protect the habitat of a single seabird population would cover different marine provinces. For instance, protecting zones of high seabird diversity and key areas of highly threatened seabird species would substantially increase the global coverage of MPAs. The world may be behind schedule to guarantee the protection of our oceans, but seabirds have paved a way to get there faster.
