Renewed calls for marine conservation must not bulldoze the democratic route that has allowed small island nations to improve fisheries and incomes without damaging the marine ecology. I wanted to share some concerns regarding the danger that threatens to disrupt the management of the Pacific Islands’ signature fisheries and main independent source of income. There have been renewed calls for 30 per cent marine protected areas (MPAs) that sound suspiciously over-simplistic. Community-conserved areas come at many scales and the Pacific Islands’ chances of ensuring a multinational indigenous conserved area are threatened.