US Considers Protecting Vast Swaths of Pacific

Deborah Zabarenko, PlanetArk 27 Aug 08;

WASHINGTON - Vast swaths of US Pacific Ocean waters could be protected as marine sanctuaries or monuments, the White House said on Monday, drawing praise from environmental groups.

President George W. Bush started the process by directing the US secretaries of the Interior, Defense and Commerce departments to assess whether certain locations in the Pacific should be designated as marine protected areas, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

The areas being considered for protection in the new plan are a group of islands and atolls in the remote central Pacific, including the Rose Atoll near American Samoa, and some of the waters around the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific.

The move comes a month after Bush in a symbolic move lifted a White House ban on offshore drilling closer to home as gas prices soared. Environmental groups said expanded offshore drilling, which would still require congressional approval, would not cut gas costs and could hurt wildlife.

If all the new places mentioned by Bush were protected, the territory would total more than 891,000 square miles (2.308 million sq km), an area larger than Texas and Alaska combined.

"These areas are host to some of the world's most biodiverse coral reefs and habitat and some of the most interesting and compelling geological formations in all of our oceans," Fratto said, speaking from Crawford, Texas.

Some of these areas are also of military and strategic importance, and Bush advised his cabinet secretaries that their recommendations should not limit military activities and should be consistent with freedom of navigation and international law.


"HOPEFUL SIGN"

Bush said any recommendations should take into account cultural, environmental, economic and "multiple use" implications, including whether to keep access to recreational and commercial fishing, energy and mineral resources and scientific study.

Bush established a national monument in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 2006, creating the largest marine protected area in the world. Monday's announcement sets a process in motion that could result in more such protected ocean areas by the end of Bush's presidency in January.

Joshua Reichert of the Pew Environment Group called the announcement "a hopeful sign for ocean conservation" but said designation as a marine sanctuary or monument could still permit commercial fishing and deep sea mining.

"However, if the president establishes these new sites as no-take reserves, where no extractive activity is allowed, it would be one of the most significant environmental achievements of any US president," Reichert said in a statement.

"The president is on the cusp of conserving more territory than any leader has ever done. That's an amazing legacy to leave the nation," said Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund.

Environmental Defense Fund noted in a statement that seabirds, turtles and other wildlife could be harmed if energy development, mining and fishing are allowed in these areas, but said it expected full protection for these species.

Bush's environmental record has drawn chronic complaints from activists, notably for failing to mandate limits on climate-warming carbon dioxide and limiting designation of endangered and threatened species during his tenure.

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Crawford; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

World's Largest Marine Sanctuary Proposed by U.S.
Ker Than, National Geographic News 26 Aug 08;

A proposal by U.S. President George W. Bush could give national-monument status to some of the world's most remote and pristine Pacific islands and their waters, potentially transforming them into the largest protected marine reserve on the planet.

But its success will hinge on whether the proposed ocean sanctuaries in the western and central Pacific are granted full-protection status, scientists warn.

That would prohibit potentially disruptive activities such as oil and gas drilling, fishing, and mineral extraction.

The administration has traditionally been friendly to industry needs.

Just yesterday the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—which falls under Bush's purview—proposed reducing a protective buffer zone against large ships in areas where endangered North Atlantic right whales swim. The move bows to shipping-industry preferences, conservationists say.

The central Pacific islands—which would include Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Jarvis and Howland Islands—could potentially cover about 776,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) of protected area.

The western proposed reserve, comprising the Northern Mariana Islands, could cover as much as 115,000 square miles (297,000 square kilometers). It would include parts of the Mariana Trench, the deepest location on Earth's surface, along with coral reef islands called atolls.

Because the President has exclusive power to protect U.S. resources, conservationists expect the new proposal will become law.

"Great Choice"

Enric Sala, a marine ecologist and National Geographic fellow and emerging explorer, called the selected territories a "great choice." (National Geographic News is owned by the National Geographic Society.)

The waters of the central Pacific islands are home to some of the best preserved coral ecosystems in the world, Sala said.

Any one of the central Pacific islands in the proposed sanctuary contains five times as many coral species as the entire Florida Keys, as well as hundreds of fish species; dozens of species of seabirds; and numerous whale, dolphin, and sea turtle species.

"These are among the only base lines that we have left of what the ocean was like hundreds of years ago," Sala said.

The waters off Kingman Reef, for instance, are dominated by gray sharks, white-tipped reef sharks, and other shark species.

"These places are completely different from what we know anywhere else. They're totally dominated by their predators," Sala said.

"Imagine the Serengeti with five lions per wildebeest. This is Kingman Reef."

Extended Protection

Many of the central Pacific islands are already fully protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but the protection zone extends only 3 to 12 nautical miles (3.5 to 14.8 miles/5.6 kilometers to 22.2 kilometers) from each island.

Bush could extend that protection to 200 nautical miles (230 miles/370 kilometers)—under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which allows Presidents to protect any U.S. areas they deem significant.

But to ensure that the monument islands fully benefit from their new status, they will have to be fully protected from all fishing, drilling, and mining activities, scientists say.

"You wouldn't necessarily need to have the entire thing protected, but it's very important to have key areas fully protected," said Dennis Heinemann, a senior scientist at the conservation group the Ocean Conservancy.

Under the Antiquities Act, the President can grant various levels of federal protection to a national monument, ranging from a "no take, no go" status—in which people and industries are not allowed to take anything from the areas or even to visit them—to a more flexible situation where certain activities are allowed.

"There is risk in this from a conservation standpoint, in that if it doesn't go right, it could be a step backward," said Amanda Leland, policy director at the Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental-advocacy group that was consulted by the White House on the new monument proposal.

Cause for Optimism?

While the Bush Administration's environmental record has often provoked ire among conservationists, the Environmental Defense Fund and other environmental groups are cautiously optimistic that Bush will grant the proposed sanctuaries full protection.

"If he does this before he leaves office, he could go down in history as being the best president on ocean conservation," Leland said.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the areas being considered are also of little commercial value: Their remoteness makes drilling or mining prohibitively expensive.

"This is low-hanging fruit," National Geographic's Sala said. "It has no commercial value, except [for] fishing."

Yet migrating schools of tuna pass through the region and could be targeted by commercial fisheries, Sala added.

"I bet most of the opposition for the enlargement of the protection will come from the tuna-fishing industries," he added.


Management Challenge

Conservationists are also hopeful the initiative will pass with full protection, because Bush has done it before.

In 2006 Bush created the Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. At the time it was the largest marine sanctuary in the world.

But even if all of the President's proposed territories are granted national-monument status, there is the question of whether the government has the resources to adequately manage them.

The total area that Bush is proposing to protect is nearly as large as Texas and Alaska combined.

The Hawaiian marine national monument is six times smaller, and it is already proving a challenge to maintain.

Two years after its creation, scientists say Papahānaumokuākea still lacks a comprehensive management plan, and funds for debris cleanup in the region have been drastically cut.

Heinemann of the Ocean Conservancy sees many parallels between Papahānaumokuākea and the ocean sanctuaries Bush is now proposing.

"It's largely uninhabited, and it's difficult and expensive to do surveillance and enforce regulations," he said. "That will be true also with these other areas."