Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio wrote about Saint Martin of Bangladesh on his official Twitter account. The 48-year-old American star congratulated the Bangladesh government, local people and NGOs on creating a new marine protected area around the coral island.
On Friday (January 21) at 8:30 pm Bangladesh time, DiCaprio wrote on Twitter: ‘Congrats to the Government of Bangladesh, local communities and NGOs for the newly established marine protected area around Saint Martin’s Island, which will preserve a unique biodiversity environment and provide a natural habitat for the only coral reefs in Bangladesh.’
DiCaprio has been a vocal opponent of climate change for many years. He has been carrying out various campaigns for that purpose. In most of his posts on social media, he highlights climate-related news. This is the first time that Bangladesh has come up in his tweet.
Actor-environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio mentions his identity on Twitter. His latest released film “Don’t Look Up” focuses on the negative effects of climate change on the Earth. He won Best Actor at the Oscars for the film “The Revenant”. The film also focuses on the climate crisis. DiCaprio shared a beautiful photo of St. Martin on Twitter. He also said that he got it courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society. His tweet has been retweeted more than 1000 times. He has more than 19.5 million followers on Twitter.
The Government of Bangladesh has recently declared an area of about 1,743 sq km in the Bay of Bengal adjacent to Saint Martin’s Island as ‘St. Martin’s Marine Protected Area’ for the conservation of marine biodiversity. This will prevent uncontrolled movement of ships, overfishing, dumping of waste and chemicals and anything harmful to coral reefs and biodiversity.
The newly declared protected area will help conserve endangered pink dolphins, sharks, ray fish, sea turtles, seabirds, corals, marine grasses and marine biodiversity and their habitats. In addition, sustainable marine resources will enhance the living standards of the local population, enrich the national maritime economy, and achieve international obligations and targets for Bangladesh’s special economic zones.
The declaration of marine protected areas will facilitate proper enforcement of law and proper management of marine resources with the help of law enforcement agencies around the island. At the same time, environmentalists believe that the abundance of marine fishery resources outside the protected area and the possibility of increasing the survival of aquatic animals will increase manifold.