Bermuda has received the blessings of a global international conservation body to be designated an important marine area to safeguard its marine mammal population.

Following submissions to the Geneva-based International Union for the Conservation of Nature, its task force on marine mammal protected areas accepted the island’s application.

The geographical marine area — which was designated the Somers Isles and Adjacent Seamounts — was among 43 new Important Marine Mammal Areas approved by the IUCN and placed on the map covering the Northwest Atlantic Ocean and Wider Caribbean Region.

An IMMA is defined as a discrete portion of habitat, key for marine mammal species, with the potential to be delineated and managed for conservation.

While they are not legal designations, they are viewed as independent, peer-reviewed assessment areas.

Andrew Stevenson, of Whales Bermuda, who led the application, said it involved documenting the designated waters as reproductive areas for humpback whales, a feeding area and migratory route, with a rationale for the boundary delineation and a detailed description of habitat.

It included references to published papers and presentations that he authored or co-authored.

Mr Stevenson highlighted the efforts of volunteers with individual and corporate donors, the Atlantic Conservation Partnership and the Sargasso Sea Commission.

He said IMMA accreditation benefits included the ability to request assistance from organisations such as the International Maritime Organisation to give guidance for minimising ship strikes on whales.

Other benefits include requests for international ocean-going ships to give a wide berth to Bermuda’s waters or to reduce speed.

It would help the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to push for more formalised legal protection of whales in the waters of Bermuda.

Mr Stevenson said the IUCN stamp of recognition to Bermuda as a hotspot for humpback whales also came with tourism benefits.

While he had been studying the resident populations of Cuvier’s beaked whales — also known as goose-beaked whales — and North Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, his database of 2,500 individual humpback whales from the past 19 years helped to gain IMMA status.

The application included attendance at an IUCN workshop in Mexico last May.

Further lobbying was supported by a grant from the Water Revolution Foundation, with funding and collaboration from the Sargasso Sea Commission, OceanCare and the Animal Welfare Institute.

Essential administrative support was given by Tethys Research Institute and Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

Globally, there are now 323 IMMAs and to date, 79 per cent of the world’s oceans have been examined to be classified under the designation.

IMMAs occupy 52 per cent of waters within exclusive economic zones, with the rest falling in international waters.

Since 2016, the IMMA secretariat of the IUCN engaged 314 scientists from more than 80 countries.

Erich Hoyt, co-chair of the IUCN’s marine mammal protected areas task force, said governments faced difficult decisions about which areas to protect and which to license for use.

It comes as fishing and shipping continue to expand, along with proposed seismic exploration for hydrocarbons and rare minerals in the seabed.

He said: “IMMAs are proving to be a way to give whales, dolphins and other marine mammals a seat at the negotiating table.”

Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, co-chair of the task force, said: “We need to keep in mind the goal of protecting 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030.”

The Northwest Atlantic Ocean and Wider Caribbean Region covers a quarter of the Atlantic Ocean from southern Labrador to Venezuela.