Bush makes Hawaiian archipelago vast new marine sanctuary
WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush created a vast new marine sanctuary Thursday, extending stronger U.S. government protection to the northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the surrounding waters with their endangered monk seals, nesting green sea turtles and other rare species.
The newest U.S. national monument covers an archipelago stretching 2,253 kilometres long and 160 kilometres wide in the Pacific Ocean. It's home to more than 7,000 species, at least a quarter of them found nowhere else.
"To put this area in context, this national monument is more than 100 times larger than Yosemite National Park," Bush said.
"It's larger than 46 of our 50 states and more than seven times larger than all our national marine sanctuaries combined. This is a big deal."
Bush announced his creation of the 75th U.S. national monument at a White House ceremony. The decision immediately sets aside 362,572 square kilometres of largely uninhabited islands, atolls, coral reef colonies and underwater peaks known as seamounts to be managed by U.S. and state agencies.
Conrad Lautenbacher, head of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which will manage nearly all of it, said the new protected area would dwarf all others.
"It's the single-largest act of ocean conservation in history. It's a large milestone," Lautenbacher said.
"It is a place to maintain biodiversity and to maintain basically the nurseries of the Pacific. It spawns a lot of the life that permeates the middle of the Pacific Ocean."
It is only the second time that Bush has invoked the 1906 National Antiquities Act, which gives the president authority to create national monuments to preserve ancient cultural sites and unusual geological features. The law itself turned 100 this month.
The president had planned as late as Wednesday to use instead the National Marine Sanctuary Act, a law that would allow challenges from Congress and others to the decision, said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage Bush.
"This means the area will get immediate protection, rather than having to wait another year," the official said, adding Bush opted at the last minute to create a national monument after realizing the process had gone on for five years and elicited thousands of comments.
With the national monument designation, the U.S. government can immediately begin a five-year phaseout of the eight commercial fishing permits in the area and impose strict prohibitions on any other extractive uses, the official said.
In February, Bush used the antiquities law for the first time when he declared part of the African Burial Ground in the lower Manhattan section of New York City a national monument. The site marks where an estimated 20,000 slaves and free blacks were buried in the 18th century.
Expanding the existing reserve and refuge will make it a larger no-take marine conservation area than the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
Midway Atoll, one of the outermost points of the new monument, will retain an emergency landing strip for commercial and military trans-Pacific flights.
Administration officials say their intent is to preserve zoned access for native Hawaiian activities, educational and scientific expeditions. Recreational and tourist visits that are no more harmful than scuba diving or photography also will be allowed. Permits, however, will be required for all activities.
Joshua Reichert, who heads the private Pew Charitable Trusts' environment program which pushed for the sanctuary for eight years, said the region contains almost 70 per cent of the tropical shallow-water coral reefs in the United States.
"When you add it all up, it's a world-class ecological jewel," he said.
"From both a national and global perspective, this really is a landmark conservation event."
WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush created a vast new marine sanctuary Thursday, extending stronger U.S. government protection to the northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the surrounding waters with their endangered monk seals, nesting green sea turtles and other rare species.
The newest U.S. national monument covers an archipelago stretching 2,253 kilometres long and 160 kilometres wide in the Pacific Ocean. It's home to more than 7,000 species, at least a quarter of them found nowhere else.
"To put this area in context, this national monument is more than 100 times larger than Yosemite National Park," Bush said.
"It's larger than 46 of our 50 states and more than seven times larger than all our national marine sanctuaries combined. This is a big deal."
Bush announced his creation of the 75th U.S. national monument at a White House ceremony. The decision immediately sets aside 362,572 square kilometres of largely uninhabited islands, atolls, coral reef colonies and underwater peaks known as seamounts to be managed by U.S. and state agencies.
Conrad Lautenbacher, head of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which will manage nearly all of it, said the new protected area would dwarf all others.
"It's the single-largest act of ocean conservation in history. It's a large milestone," Lautenbacher said.
"It is a place to maintain biodiversity and to maintain basically the nurseries of the Pacific. It spawns a lot of the life that permeates the middle of the Pacific Ocean."
It is only the second time that Bush has invoked the 1906 National Antiquities Act, which gives the president authority to create national monuments to preserve ancient cultural sites and unusual geological features. The law itself turned 100 this month.
The president had planned as late as Wednesday to use instead the National Marine Sanctuary Act, a law that would allow challenges from Congress and others to the decision, said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage Bush.
"This means the area will get immediate protection, rather than having to wait another year," the official said, adding Bush opted at the last minute to create a national monument after realizing the process had gone on for five years and elicited thousands of comments.
With the national monument designation, the U.S. government can immediately begin a five-year phaseout of the eight commercial fishing permits in the area and impose strict prohibitions on any other extractive uses, the official said.
In February, Bush used the antiquities law for the first time when he declared part of the African Burial Ground in the lower Manhattan section of New York City a national monument. The site marks where an estimated 20,000 slaves and free blacks were buried in the 18th century.
Expanding the existing reserve and refuge will make it a larger no-take marine conservation area than the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
Midway Atoll, one of the outermost points of the new monument, will retain an emergency landing strip for commercial and military trans-Pacific flights.
Administration officials say their intent is to preserve zoned access for native Hawaiian activities, educational and scientific expeditions. Recreational and tourist visits that are no more harmful than scuba diving or photography also will be allowed. Permits, however, will be required for all activities.
Joshua Reichert, who heads the private Pew Charitable Trusts' environment program which pushed for the sanctuary for eight years, said the region contains almost 70 per cent of the tropical shallow-water coral reefs in the United States.
"When you add it all up, it's a world-class ecological jewel," he said.
"From both a national and global perspective, this really is a landmark conservation event."
