After designating nearly 90,000 acres in ME as a National Monument this week, today President Obama is creating the world’s largest marine preserve off the coast of Hawaii.
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Created in 2006 by former U.S. President George W. Bush, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument originally measures 140,000 square miles.
Midway, where Obama will visit Thursday, includes two of its own protected areas, the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and the Battle of Midway National Memorial.
Protecting this area means it will be closed for the extraction of oil, gas, minerals, and other energy development. It was his predecessor, George W. Bush, who established the monument about 10 years ago, but Obama made a decision to expand on it as part of his push for conservation and climate change issues as his final term wraps up.
The natural monument’s unique ecosystem is home to some 7,000 marine and terrestrial species including endangered turtles and seals as well as black coral that can live more than 4,500 years. Fishing for recreation may be done with a permit.
The White House said the monument will protect 87,500 acres and will bolster the forest’s resilience against the impact of climate change. It features the largest seabird gathering site in the world, with more than 14 million birds from 22 species, almost all of the remaining endangered Hawaiian monk seals, Hawaiian green sea turtles and Laysan albatrosses.
The marine protected area is considered federal land where commercial fishing is prohibited.
‘By expanding the monument, President Obama has increased protections for one of the most biologically and culturally significant places on the planet, ‘ said Joshua Reichert, an executive vice president at the Pew Charitable Trusts. Brian Schatz and “prominent Native Hawaiian leaders”.
Twice the size of Texas, at 582,578 total square miles, the expanded monument is now the largest marine protected area on the planet. “Expanding Papahānaumokuākea will replenish stocks of ‘ahi, promote biodiversity, fight climate change, and give a greater voice to Native Hawaiians in managing this resource”.
“This is one of the most important actions an American president has ever taken for the health of the oceans”, Schatz said in a statement.
Sean Martin, the president of the Hawaii Longline Association, said his organization was disappointed Obama closed an area almost the size of Alaska without a public process.
Obama will feature his action in an address Wednesday to the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s World Conservation Congress in Honolulu, which is being hosted in the United States for the first time.
The act will ban commercial fishing and drilling in that region of the Pacific Ocean.
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In addition to being a sacred area for Hawaiians, the monument commemorates the site of the Battle of Midway, a major Allied victory and turning point in World War II.
