Paris - Part of a long undersea mountain range between Iceland and the Azores is to be given official protected status, creating one of the largest protected marine areas in the world, the 15 member nations of the OSPAR Commission for the protection of the North-East Atlantic said Friday.
The WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF) said it was a "historic decision" to designate the northern section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) a High Seas Marine Protected Area.
The decision was taken during a conference in the western French city of Brest.