Obama to expand marine reserves and crack down on seafood black market

President vows to 'protect our most precious marine landscapes' as Leonardo DiCaprio pledges $7m to 'meaningful' ocean protection
Suzanne Goldenberg The Guardian 17 Jun 14;

Barack Obama used his executive powers as president on Tuesday to create the world's largest marine sanctuary, banning commercial fishing, mining and oil exploration in a vast expanse of the Pacific.

The move – which saw Obama once again bypass an unwilling Congress to advance his environmental agenda – could potentially put nearly 800,000 sq miles in the south-central Pacific off-limits to commercial exploitation.

In a related measure, the White House announced a new task force to crack down on illegal fishing operations and black market seafood making its way to US supermarkets.

"We can protect our oceans for future generations," Obama said in a brief video address to an international ocean summit at the US State Department.

Seeking to deflect an anticipated Republican backlash against his use of his executive authority, Obama said he was following the lead of earlier presidents by expanding an existing protection zone.

“Like Presidents Clinton and Bush before me I am going to use my authority as president to protect some of our most precious marine landscapes, just like we do for mountains and rivers and forests,” Obama told the summit.

The marine sanctuary under consideration would vastly expand the areas protected around the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which was originally established by George Bush.

The area, around seven uninhabited islands and atolls under US control, contains some of the most pristine marine environments in the world, the White House said in a statement.

The statement said Obama would decide on the final geographic scope of the protection zone after consulting scientists, conservation experts, and fishing interests.

But the Washington Post which had an early look at the announcement, said the sanctuary could extend up to 780,000 square miles, doubling the area of ocean under protection.

Obama was also convening a task force to fight unreported and illegal fishing, the White House said.

Officials said rogue trawlers undermine government's efforts to manage fish stocks. Scientists estimate about one of every five fish is caught illegally, robbing up to $23bn a year from legitimate commercial fishing operations around the world.

The task force would work on coming up with a comprehensive strategy to end pirate fishing by the end of 2014, the White House advisor, John Podesta, said.

In addition to the economic and environmental costs, he said rogue fishing operations were a security threat – “vectors for criminals who traffic in guns, drugs and other human beings”.

The task force will look at requiring fishing vessels to install transponders to track their movements at sea and the source of seafood that ends up in US supermarkets. “Customers will know exactly who caught it, where and when,” the secretary of state, John Kerry, told the summit.

The twin announcements from the White House were intended to spur action from government officials, business leaders and environmental groups attending the ocean summit. “For this effort to succeed, it has to be bigger than any one country,” Obama said.

Moments after his video address, the actor Leonardo DiCaprio told the summit he would donate an additional $7m over the next two years to “meaningful” ocean protection. The actor had earlier given about $2m to the Oceana conservation group.

On Monday, Kiribati's president, Anote Tong, said the Pacific island nation would close off an ocean area the size of California to commercial exploitation by the end of this year. Tong said the ban on commercial fishing in the 157,630-sq-mile area protected area would help speed the recovery of tuna and other fish stocks.

The marine protection area Obama was proposing was originally envisaged by Bush. In his last two weeks in the White House, Bush used his executive powers as president to set up marine sanctuaries in three areas in the Pacific.

Obama was now considering expanding one of those areas, near Wake Island and six other uninhabited atolls.

The Pew Charitable Trusts estimated the move could potentially expand the area Bush protected by a factor of nine to some 780,000 sq miles.

Expanding other sanctuaries designated by Bush, such as the Northern Mariana Islands, would increase the area to 1.5m sq miles, according to Pew.

But the move was in some ways symbolic. Because the islands are uninhabited, there is very little fishing in the area Obama proposes to protect, and no indication mining or drilling is imminent.

However, scientists say bigger marine sanctuaries are easier to enforce and allow more species to recover.

More than 350 scientists this week signed on to a letter to the White House urging Obama to expand marine sanctuaries to up to 20% of each ocean region under US control.

Conservation groups praised Obama's move, as well as his proposals for tracking seafood.

Scientists believe as much as a third of the wild-caught seafood sold in US is landed by illegal fishing trawlers, undermining efforts to sustainably manage stocks

The Oceana conservation group said the task force was “a historic step forward” to stop illegal fishing and seafood fraud.

“Tracking where, when and how our seafood is caught, and ensuring that this basic information follows the product through each step in the supply chain, will help to eliminate seafood fraud and the illegal fishing it can disguise,” the group said in a statement.

Other environmental groups praised the action on illegal fishing, but urged Congress to implement a treaty that would put identification numbers on all fishing vessels and curb landings of illegal fish catches.

“As one of the top seafood importers in the world, the US has a responsibility to ensure that every fish bought in our stores, markets, and restaurants is fully traceable to where it was legally caught,” the World Wildlife Fund said.

Expansion of US marine protected zone could double world reserves
Matt McGrath BBC News 17 Jun 14;

The US plans to create the world's biggest marine protected area (MPA) in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The White House will extend an existing protected area, known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Fishing and drilling would be banned from an area that could eventually cover two million sq km.

The extended zone would double the world's fully protected marine reserves.

Rare species

The Pacific Remote Islands Area is controlled by the US and consists of seven scattered islands, atolls and reefs that lie between Hawaii and American Samoa.

Essentially uninhabited, the waters that surround these remote islands are home to a wide range of species including corals, seabirds, sharks and vegetation not found anywhere else in the world.

In 2009, President Bush declared the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, giving the islands the same level of protection as statues or cultural sites.

Now President Obama has signalled that he will extend the area that will be off limits to fishing and mineral exploitation to the limit of US economic control - some 200 nautical miles around the islands.

The White House said the final size of the protected zone would depend on consultations with scientists, fishing and conservation organisations.

The Washington Post reported that this would eventually cover up two million sq km.

"This area contains some of the most pristine tropical marine environment in the world," said White House senior counsel John Podesta, who made the announcement.

"These tropical coral reefs and associated ecosystems are among the marine environments facing the most serious threat from climate change and ocean acidification."

Financial incentives
Speaking ahead of the announcement, President Obama said that protecting marine areas wasn't just a good idea for the environment, it made good economic sense as well.

"If we ignore these problems, if we drain our oceans of their resources, we won't just be squandering one of humanity's greatest treasures, we will be cutting off one of the worlds major sources of food and economic growth," he said.

Last year, attempts to create huge marine reserves in Antarctica failed when Russia blocked plans by the US and others for a third time.

Ocean campaigners have welcomed the new US plan as an important step.

"This is incredibly significant and shows global leadership from the US on this issue" said Karen Sack from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"There is an amazing array of biodiversity around these islands, there are sea mount systems with a lot of deep sea species, all types of marine mammals."

Marine Protected Areas currently make up around 2.8% of the world's oceans - but Karen Sack says the areas that have a full ban on fishing, drilling and other activities are much smaller, which increases the significance of the US move.

"Less than 1% of the global ocean is fully protected," she said.

"While this area may be far away from anywhere the designation adds to the part of the ocean that is protected in this way which is critical."

Conserving marine species isn't just the preserve of large nations like the US.

In recent days the tiny Republic of Kiribati announced that the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, will close to all commercial fishing by the end of 2014.

This fishing zone, which is close to the newly extended US MPA, is within a region that is home to the largest remaining stocks of tuna on Earth.