President Barack Obama will expand the country’s largest contiguous fully protected conservation area to create the world’s largest marine protected area in Hawaii, covering 582,578 square miles of land and sea, the White House said.
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The expansion also is expected to make the area more resilient to climate change-related threats, including rising sea levels, warming ocean temperatures and acidification.
The move, which more than quadruples the size of the Papahanaumokuakea (pronounced “Papa-ha-now-moh-koo-ah-kay-ah”) Marine National Monument that President George W. Bush established a decade ago, underscores the extent to which Obama has elevated the issues of conservation and climate change in his second term.
The four-fold boost in territory will cover an area with more than 7,000 marine species, including a coral that is the world’s oldest-known living organism at 4,265 years old.
In 2014, he also greatly expanded the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, south and west of Hawaii. But under the 1906 Antiquities Act, the president can designate sites as national monuments, giving them numerous same protections.
Some Native Hawaiian activists, moreover, lobbied for greater protection so they could continue to observe traditional voyaging practices in which they navigate without instruments. “As part of his announcement, I appreciate the President’s recognition of the importance of commercial fishing to Hawaii’s way of life and our shared goal of supporting Hawaii’s sustainable pelagic fisheries”.
But the decision drew sharp criticism from the fishing industry and even fellow Democrats, as it will drastically expand the area where commercial fishing and drilling is banned. Brian Schatz (D) of Hawaii to protect more of the sanctuary.
Papahānaumokuākea is a vast and isolated linear cluster of small, low lying islands and atolls, and surrounding ocean, roughly 250 km to the northwest of the main Hawaiian Archipelago and extending over some 1,931 km. Recreational fishing and scientific research will reportedly still be allowed. Many are hopeful that this most recent expansion will lead other areas to follow in their footsteps.
“Native Hawaiian culture considers the Monument and the adjacent area a sacred place”.
Scientists estimate that a minimum of 30 percent of our world’s oceans must be protected just to mitigate the effects of climate change, but now less than five percent are protected.
It is a proposal that has been long considered by the White House, and while it is championed by environmentalists and conservationists, it has caused consternation among and is resisted by those who say they will be negatively affected by it.
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Obama’s announcement comes just ahead of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress, which will be convening in Honolulu, and a day after the National Park Service celebrated its 100th birthday.
