US vows 'huge' marine protection

Richard Black, BBC News 6 Jan 09;

The US is to establish what it calls "the largest area of protected sea in the world" around its Pacific islands.

Commercial fishing and mining will be banned in the protected zones which include the Marianas Trench, the deepest area of ocean on the planet.

The area totals 500,000 sq km (190,000 sq miles) of sea and sea floor.

While welcoming the protection package, environmental activists said that without curbing climate change, the other measures would be meaningless.

President George W Bush will formally announce the measure during an address on Tuesday evening in Washington.

Briefing journalists in advance, his environmental advisor James Connaughton said the move meant the US was "setting the mark for the world with respect to effective marine management".

"The conservation action is going to benefit the public and future generations through enhanced science, knowledge and awareness, and just good old-fashioned inspiration, because these places are exceptionally dynamic when it comes to the marine environment," said the chairman of the White House council on environmental quality.

The areas covered include some of the islands most remote from the world's large populations centres, which have not so far encountered the intense fishing present across much of the oceans.

They also encompass some of the most biologically diverse places on the planet, undersea volcanoes and hot seafloor vents, and submarine pools of sulphur thought to be unique on Earth.

War monuments

The measure involves establishing three new "national monuments" around different US territories in the Pacific.

Together they encompass the Marianas Trench and the long arc of volcanoes and undersea vents along the Mariana Islands chain, south of Japan and north of Papua New Guinea; coral reefs around the three northernmost islands of the Marianas; and eight more coral atolls and islands.

The Marianas group includes islands such as Saipan and Tinian which played significant roles in World War II, and Guam which is still a major US base.

One of the other places now receiving protection, Johnston Atoll, was formerly used to stockpile chemical weapons.

Mr Connaughton said the national monuments would be established in a way "that also fully respects our nation's national security needs by ensuring freedom of navigation for all vessels in accordance with international law and by ensuring that our military can stay ready and be globally mobile".

The Marianas Trench, which reaches depths of about 11km (about seven miles), and the string of volcanoes and vents will be protected from mineral exploration.

The coral areas will also see a complete ban on commercial fishing out to 50 nautical miles from shore.

"It's very significant both from an ecological and biological perspective as well as in its political symbolism," said Joshua Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group.

"In the Marianas alone, the area that's been protected contains some of world's most exceptional geology. Rose Atoll has the highest proportion of live coral cover anywhere in the world."

Brendan Cummings, oceans programme director at the Center for Biological Diversity which has brought several court actions against the Bush administration on climate change, also welcomed the commercial fishing ban but said curbing greenhouse emissions was also vital for the long-term preservation of corals.

"Unless we deal with global warming, all other protective measures for coral reefs will be rendered meaningless," he said.

"Ultimately, Bush's legacy as a climate criminal will far outweigh his ocean legacy, as any benefit coral reefs receive from this monument designation will be bleached away by warming seas."

As well as warming the oceans, rising carbon dioxide emissions are slowly reducing the alkalinity of seawater, which is also projected to have a detrimental effect on coral growth.

President Bush's administration has come under fire in recent months from environmentalists angered by its reluctance to cut carbon emissions, by its moves to weaken endangered species legislation and by its support for naval use of sonar systems that can kill whales.

But, said Mr Reichert, the outgoing president has "protected more special places in the sea than any other person in history".

Largest Marine Reserve Declared; Home to Mariana Trench
Dina Cappiello, Associated Press National Geographic News 6 Jan 09;

The home of a giant land crab, a sunken island ringed by pink-colored coral, and equatorial waters teeming with sharks and other predators have been designated national marine monuments by U.S. President George W. Bush in the largest marine conservation effort in history. (See photos on the National Geographic website.)

The three areas—totaling some 195,274 square miles (505,757 square kilometers)—include the Mariana Trench and the waters and corals surrounding three uninhabited islands in the Northern Mariana Islands, Rose Atoll in American Samoa, and seven islands strung along the equator in the central Pacific Ocean.

"We should be very happy because it's the largest marine area ever protected," said Enric Sala, a marine ecologist and National Geographic fellow and emerging explorer. (National Geographic News is owned by the National Geographic Society.)

"We don't need more research to know that more of these remote intact places need to be protected," said Sala, who has helped conduct some of the few scientific surveys in the remote central Pacific islands, particularly in the pristine Kingman Reef.

"This is the only chance we have left to protect parts of the ocean that are still natural."

Palmyra Atoll, a region included in the monument, and Kingman Reef are among the most biodiverse marine ecosystems on earth, according to Suzanne Case, Hawaii director of the nonprofit The Nature Conservancy.

The areas harbor the highest fish biomass in the Pacific and are one of the few places still dominated by sharks and other predators, Case said in an email.

"At a time when positive news about our seas is rare, the designation of three new marine national monuments in the Pacific is a landmark to be celebrated," she added.

Rare Treasures

Each location harbors unique species—such as a bird that incubates its eggs in the heat of underwater volcanoes—and some of the rarest geological formations on Earth, including a sulfur pool. The only other known pool exists on Jupiter's moon Io.

All will be protected as national monuments—the same status afforded to statues and cultural sites—under the 1906 Antiquities Act. The law allows the government to immediately phase out commercial fishing and other extractive uses.

It will be the second time Bush has used the law to protect marine resources.

Two years ago, the president made a huge swath of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument, barring fishing, oil and gas extraction, and tourism from its waters and coral reefs. At the time, that area was the largest conservation area in the world.

Savings Accounts

The three areas to be designated Tuesday are larger, though the decisions came with some opposition.

Northern Mariana Islands government officials and indigenous communities, for instance, initially objected to the monument designation, citing concerns about sovereignty, fishing, and mineral exploration.

Recreational fishing, tourism, and scientific research with a federal permit could still occur inside the three areas under the new law. The designations will not conflict with U.S. military activities or freedom of navigation, White House officials said.

The decisions also fell short in size and scope of what conservationists, including Sala, had hoped for.

"The bottom line is that less than a tenth of one percent of the ocean is protected," Sala said, versus 12 percent of land area locked up in reserves.

Reserves are important conservation strategies, Sala said, in that pristine environments can be thought of "savings accounts."

That's because protecting large areas allows marine life to flourish and eventually spill over into neighboring ecosystems, constantly replenishing the seas.

Christine Dell'Amore of National Geographic News contributed to this report.

Bush To Declare Pacific Areas Protected Monuments
Jeff Mason, PlanetArk 7 Jan 09;

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush will designate nearly 200,000 square miles (518,000 sq km) of the Pacific ocean on Tuesday as a protected region, White House officials said, making the areas hands-off for oil drilling or other extraction procedures.

Bush, who often draws ire from activists for his record on environmental issues, will declare three areas in the central Pacific "marine national monuments," spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"The president's actions will prevent the destruction and extraction of natural resources from these beautiful and biologically diverse areas without conflicting with our military's activities and freedom of navigation, which are vital to our national security," she told a briefing.

She said the new protected areas will comprise the largest area of ocean set aside as marine protected areas in the world, at 195,280 square miles (505,500 sq km).

The areas are home to huge underwater mud volcanoes, coral reefs, and rare species of whales among other things.

The White House said in August it would consider 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 for protection.

James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, told reporters on Monday the three areas decided upon included the Mariana National Monument, Pacific Remote Islands National Monument, and the Rose Atoll.

Bush established a national monument in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 2006, creating the largest marine protected area in the world at the time.

The Pew Environment Group praised the latest decision.

"This historic action by President Bush protects some of the world's most unique and biologically significant ocean habitat," Joshua Reichert, the group's managing director, said in a statement.

"Together with the Hawaii marine monument established two years ago, this marks the end of an era in which humans have increasingly understood the need to conserve vanishing wild places on land but failed to comprehend the similar plight of our oceans. It comes none too soon."

Earlier this year Bush lifted a White House ban on offshore drilling closer to home as gasoline prices were soaring. Environmentalists said that largely symbolic move would hurt wildlife while doing little to bring down fuel prices.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

Bush to establish world's largest marine protection area
Kerry Sheridan Yahoo News 5 Jan 09;

WASHINGTON(AFP) (AFP) – Seeking to add an environmental boost to his legacy, President George W. Bush is to announce the creation of the world's largest oceanic protected area in three parts of the Pacific.

In a bid to protect pristine coral reefs, rare fish and underwater volcanoes, Bush on Tuesday will mark out an area spanning some 195,000 square miles (505,000 sq km) in the Pacific Ocean as a trio of "marine national monuments," a spokesman said.

The areas include the Mariana Trench and northern Mariana Islands, the Rose Atoll in American Samoa and a chain of remote islands in the Central Pacific.

Fishing will be barred or limited in many island areas while the 21 volcanoes and hydrothermal vents along the ocean floor beneath the Mariana Islands will also be protected.

"This is very, very big," James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Issues, told reporters Monday ahead of Bush's announcement.

"In the last several years, it's on par with what we've been able to accomplish on land over the course of the last 100 years," he said, noting that the total area would "comprise the largest areas of ocean or ocean seabed set aside as marine protected areas in the world."

Collectively, the three areas will nudge out the Phoenix Island Protected Area, established in 2008 by the South Pacific nation of Kiribati as the world's largest protected area.

They also top Bush's last such announcement of a marine protection area in 2006 -- the 140,000 square miles (363,000 square kilometers) of Pacific Ocean near the northwestern Hawaiian islands.

"Because these areas are pristine it gives us the best opportunity to understand effects in the ocean system," said Connaughton.

In some island areas, commercial fishing will be prohibited within 50 nautical miles while indigenous, recreational or research fishing will be permitted on a case-by-case basis, Connaughton said.

The move was praised by environmentalists, though details remained unclear on the degree of protection the areas will be afforded.

For scientists, the designations are "wonderful opportunities," said Roger McManus, vice president for global marine programs at the environmental group Conservation International.

"You don't get a better natural laboratory than we have in these places," he said.

Naming them as marine monuments "will do a lot to protect the coral reefs and also do a lot restore fish populations in the regions," McManus said.

However, he noted that many of the remote island areas have been previously named national wildife refuges and are "essentially no-take areas already" when it comes to fishing.

"The real key is what additional protection is provided above and beyond" by Bush's designation, he said.

Among the protected areas are the 1,500 mile-long (2,400-kilometer) Marianas Trench, including submerged active volcanoes and hydrothermal vents that run along the Marianas Island chain, an area that contains the deepest point on Earth.

The Pacific Remote Islands National Monument will comprise areas with coral reef ecosystems that are home to sharks, endangered turtles and millions of seabirds off seven areas: Kingman Reef; Palmyra Atoll; Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Islands; and Johnston Atoll; and Wake Island.

Finally, the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument will be named around a small but dense coral reef known for its pink shade at Rose Atoll, a remote area around American Samoa.

"The waters around Rose Atoll also are home to giant clams, reef sharks, and very large parrot fish, and are a frequent location where you can find humpback and pilot whales and porpoises," Connaughton said.

A monumental decision for the oceans
IUCN Press Release 6 Jan 09;

President Bush today will formally designate three areas in the Pacific as Marine National Monuments. IUCN has been one of the major partners of the U.S. Government in the creation of these marine protected areas. The scientific and technical advice provided by IUCN to the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has paid off, as it will result in the creation of the world’s largest ocean protected area covering 195,280 square miles.

The three new Marine National Monuments include two regions of the Line Islands that span the central Pacific and an area in the western Pacific which encompasses the northern Marianas chain and the Mariana Trench – the deepest ocean canyon in the world. Together these new protected areas boast enormous biodiversity both in terms of species and habitats.

"This is a great way to start 2009,"exclaims Carl Gustaf Lundin, Head of the IUCN Global Marine Programme. "It demonstrates the ability of marine conservation to bring humanity together in protecting some of the most unique ocean areas in the world."

"This significant act protecting the deepest part of our oceans comes over 100 years since the United States protected the deepest place on land, the Grand Canyon. Recognition of the need to fully protect large areas of ocean has been growing in recent years – we hope that this will be followed by other nations around the world," said Dan Laffoley, Marine Chair of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas who led on the IUCN advice to CEQ.

"The U.S. Government is to be applauded for its significant efforts in adding to the U.S. and global marine protected estate," said Scott Hajost, Executive Director of IUCN U.S.

However, conservation of the designated areas appears not to be complete.

"We would hope that the whole Mariana Trench – and not only the bottom – is protected. If fishing in this surface water continues, then many of the rare deep sea creatures living in the trench will starve," said Lundin.

While we can’t forget that fighting climate change remains a major challenge to assure the future of the oceans, increasing the number of marine protected areas is an absolute must. Dramatically improving high seas governance should also be a top priority. We must now hope that the incoming U.S. Administration will build on today’s announcement and give our oceans the attention they deserve," added Lundin,