President Barack Obama is expanding a national monument off the coast of his native Hawaii, establishing the largest protected marine sanctuary in the world, the White House announced Friday.
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In June of 2006, when President George W. Bush gave birth the the marine national monument with Presidential Proclamation 8031, Papahānaumokuākea was the biggest swath of ocean to be protected by any government.
The White House said Obama will travel next week to Midway Atoll, within the monument area, to speak about the new designation. He will be visiting the islands next week to address leaders from the Pacific Island Conference of Leaders and the IUCN World Conservation Congress.
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is the largest contiguous fully protected conservation area under the U.S. flag, and one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world.
President Obama’s designation responds to a proposal put forward by Senator Schatz and Native Hawaiian leaders, in addition to significant input and local support from Hawaii elected officials, cultural groups, conservation organizations, scientists and fishermen.
Opponents of the expansion have included many from the fishing industry, who believe it will negatively impact their business and drive up prices for local seafood.
The Council’s resolution also requests that the USA 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. 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. Recreational fishing, scientific research, and the removal of fish and other resources for Native Hawaiian cultural practices will be allowed in the expansion area by permit. A team of scientists on a deep-sea expedition discovered the sponge, which they say is the world’s largest ever documented. Hawaii’s longline fishing fleet supplies much of the fresh tuna and other fish to Hawaii.
“We are disappointed that the president has made a decision to close an area almost the size of the entire state of Alaska without public process”, Sean Martin, the president of the Hawaii Longline Association told the Associated Press news agency. The expanded area, including the archipelago and its adjacent waters, is considered a sacred place for the Native Hawaiian community. But preserving public space from development has been something Obama can do using his own power, and he had moved to permanently protect more than 265 million acres of land and water even before the expansion in Hawaii. USA presidents were granted the executive authority to designation land as protected regions under the 1906 Antiques Act, which states: “the President of the United States is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest”.
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In 2014, he also greatly expanded the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, south and west of Hawaii.
