Bush Plans Largest Marine Sanctuary
In what is being called the best thing the Bush administration has done over the last six years for the oceans and for the environment, the White House decided to invoke the 1906 National Antiquities Act and create a national monument for the first time during Bush's presidency, a senior administration official told the Associated Press on Wednesday. "The president is creating the world's largest marine protected area," said Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, an environmental group based in New York City. "It's as important as the establishment of Yellowstone." The plan designates a marine sanctuary spanning nearly 1,400 miles of the Pacific Ocean northwest of Hawaii to Midway Atoll, creating the largest protected marine reserve in the world.The area, known now as North-Western Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, is more than 1,200 miles long and encompasses roughly 140,000 sq mi - larger than the state of Montana and slightly bigger than Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, making it the largest sanctuary in the world.
It is also larger than all of America's national parks combined.
The new reserve is an aquatic Eden of tropical fish, sea turtles, monk seals and more than 7,000 other marine species. All commercial fishing will be phased out in the region over the next five years, White House officials said. Marine biologists and environmental groups, many of whom have clashed bitterly with Bush over his support for new oil drilling and myriad other areas where they say he has weakened environmental protections, offered him rare praise today.
The Bush plan would end fishing in the area within five years. It would allow Hawaiians to have access for other traditional activities and keep the Midway World War II memorial open for research, education and ecotourism. Visitors wishing to snorkel, dive or take photographs in the area would have to obtain a permit, and no one could take fish, wildlife, corals or minerals from the region.
President Theodore Roosevelt established a bird sanctuary on some of the islands in 1909. President Bill Clinton created a coral reef ecosystem reserve in the area by executive orders in late 2000 and early 2001 just before leaving office but stopped short of designating a permanent sanctuary. Hawaii's GOP Gov. Linda Lingle has endorsed the idea.
The proposal has had a cooler reception from Democratic Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, who have traditionally been protective of local fishing interests, but without providing specifics the administration says it is relying on a coalition of environmental groups -- headed by the Pew Environmental Trust -- to raise money to buy out the commercial fishermen.
The islands include almost 70 percent of the nation's tropical, shallow-water coral reefs, a rookery for 14 million seabirds, and the last refuge for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal and threatened green sea turtle. The area also has an abundance of large predatory fish at a time when 90 percent of such species have disappeared from the world's oceans.
Bush's interest in the area was heightened after seeing a TV documentary show this year.
- June 15, 2006
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