Obama to create largest marine protected area ever, because bigger is better

By Amelia Urry

Say what you will about the U.S., when we do something, we do it supersized.

So when Obama decides to make a marine reserve, he doesn’t just put your average patch of ocean off-limits to commercial fishing, energy exploration, and other shenanigans. No. It’s a massive portion of the Pacific that more than doubles the total amount of protected ocean. In the world. From The Washington Post:

(T)he Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument would be expanded from almost 87,000 square miles to nearly 782,000 square miles — all of it adjacent to seven islands and atolls controlled by the United States. The designation would include waters up to 200 nautical miles offshore from the territories.

“It’s the closest thing I’ve seen to the pristine ocean,” said Enric Sala, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence who has researched the area’s reefs and atolls since 2005.

Marine protected areas are widely acknowledged as one of the most effective tools to fight back against overfishing, habitat destruction, and ecological loss. By roping off some of the most productive waters, we give fish a fighting chance. In this case, the proposed boundaries encompass a number of “underwater mountains,” habitats which are important as fish nurseries and centers of marine biodiversity.

The potential expansion area would quintuple the number of underwater mountains under protection. It would also end tuna fishing and provide shelter for nearly two dozen species of marine mammals, five types of threatened sea turtles, and a variety of sharks and other predatory fish species.

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It’s a little early to declare victory — this announcement is merely a proposal, to be followed by a public comment period that will end later this year, hopefully with the official expansion of the reserve. But today’s announcement — coming on the tails of Capitol Hill Ocean Week and John Kerry’s “Our Ocean” conference in D.C. and the announcement of a new public nomination process for marine sanctuaries and a crackdown on seafood fraud — might signal a turning of the tides. (What, you thought you’d get out of this without seaing a pun?)

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