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| Alamy: hermit crab on Howland Is. |
The President signed an executive order expanding the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to covers 370,000 square miles of the central Pacific. The order enlarges the reserve six times and makes it the largest marine reserve in the world. The designation makes the waters off limits to commercial fishing, thus protecting unique coral reefs and marine ecosystems. His executive action is part of the administration's efforts to take action against global warming and in favor of environmental preservation despite deadlock in Congress. This declaration is his 12th exercise of executive power under the Antiquities Act.
After protests from Hawaiian-based tuna fleets, the Current Occupant left seas around four islands (Howland, Baker, Palmyra and Kingman) open to fishing. Marine conservation advocates wanted all seven islands and atolls protected, which would have put 782,000 square miles of ocean beyond legal commerical fishing. Conservationists have called the vast area near pristine and some of the last real tropical ocean wilderness left on the planet. The small, independent island nation of Kiribati will soon announce that it is setting aside an ocean area about the size of California to protect the waters around the Phoenix Islands. That preserve is to come into effect in January 2015.
