The Council’s resolution also requests that the US government address the resources and tools needed to effectively manage and administer an expanded monument and to specify the technical, scientific, and socioeconomic costs and benefits from monument expansion on marine resources, residents of Hawaii, and the nation.
Advertisement
Banned from the protected area will be the exploitation of any and all resources, whether through commercial fishing or the mining of minerals, though native populations may continue fishing with special permits.
The area will also be studied for the impacts of ocean acidification, caused by climate change, according to the White House.
Administered jointly by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the State of Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument enCompasses two national wildlife refuges: Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge. Some fishing groups have voiced concerns about an expansion’s impact on their industry.
Additionally today, Secretaries Pritzker and Jewell also announced their intent to draft a new agreement making the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) a co-trustee in managing the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
The most special aspect when it comes to this fascinating archipelago are the black corals, the longest-living marine species in the world.
President Barack Obama has created the largest protected area on Earth, expanding a national marine monument in the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii to 582,578 miles: more than twice the size of France and some 50 times greater than the land area of the Aloha State. “For somebody to feel good, we’re going to force USA fishermen out of waters”.
The council recommends catch limits and other steps created to sustain fisheries.
Hawaii’s longline fishing fleet supplies a large portion of the fresh tuna and other fish consumed in Hawaii.
The Pew Charitable Trusts helped lead the push to expand the monument.
“Native Hawaiian culture considers the Monument and the adjacent area a sacred place”.
It is home to a number of sunken USA and Japanese planes and ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, which was sunk during the Battle of Midway in World War II, and is now submerged in almost 5,000 meters of water. The battle was fought in June of 1942 and marked a major shift in that war. But several of the islands in the original monument area can be seen on Google Street View, where you can take a scroll down Tern Island and East Island at French Frigate Shoals, Laysan Island, Lisianski Island, Pearl and Hermes Atoll and Midway Atoll.
Advertisement
“Despite this lack of support, the Quimby family used high-paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C., to go around the people of Maine and have President Obama use his authority to designate this area a National Monument”, Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage said of the Maine monument.
