President Obama on Friday will expand a marine national monument off the Northwest Hawaiian Islands to make it the world’s largest marine protected area, encompassing nearly 600,000 square miles and thousands of species of sea life, including endangered sea turtles, whales and black coral beds.
The action will make it illegal to conduct any commercial fishing and any type of mineral extraction in the expanded Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, the original 140,000 square miles of which was first protected by President George W. Bush in 2006 and designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2010.
“Building on the United States’ global leadership in marine conservation, today’s designation will more than quadruple the size of the existing marine monument, permanently protecting pristine coral reefs, deep sea marine habitats, and important ecological resources in the waters of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands,” the White House said in a statement.
Obama will travel to Hawaii next week to commemorate the new monument with a trip to Midway Atoll, located within the newly protected area, to highlight “how the threat of climate change makes protecting our public lands and waters more important than ever,” the White House said.
The president on Wednesday evening also will address leaders form the Pacific Island Conference of Leaders and International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Conservation Congress, which is being hosted in the United States for the first time.
Since Bush first designated the original marine monument, new scientific exploration and research has revealed new species and deep sea habitats, as well as “important ecological connections between” the previously protected area and the adjacent waters, the White House said.
The expansion provides protections for more than 7,000 marine species, including whales and sea turtles listed under the Endangered Species Act, and the longest-living species in the world — black coral, which have been found to love longer than 4,500 years.
The White House hopes the designation will improve ocean resilience in the face of warming, acidification and other trends the administration attributes to climate change. It will also create a natural laboratory that will allow scientists to evaluate these trends and how they are impacting the marine ecosystems there.
In addition, the monument provides historical and cultural significance, both for native Hawaiians who consider it a sacred place, and veterans and war history buffs. Shipwrecks and downed aircraft from the Battle of Midway in World War II, a major shift in the war in favor of the Allies, dot the ocean floor in the protected area.
“This step builds on a rich tradition of marine protection in Hawaiian waters and world-class, well-managed fisheries, including a long-line fishing fleet that is a global leader in sustainable practices,” the White House said.
