Bush Creates A National Marine Protected Area

Thanks to Mike at The Questionable Authority for this piece of good news!

Today, President Bush invoked the Antiquities Act to create the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument. In so doing, he has created the single largest marine protected area in the world - at 360,000 square kilometers, the new national monument is slightly larger than the 348,000 km² Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. This is absolutely fantastic news. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are a relatively untouched area with tremendous biological diversity.

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It is difficult to overstate the significance of this act. This new area is seven times larger than the sum total of the other marine protected areas in the country. It contains the primary breeding areas for the Hawaiian Monk Seal (endangered) and the Hawaiian population of Green Sea Turtles (threatened). Midway Atoll, which is included in the monument, is the site of the largest albatross colony in the world - and that's just the above sea level parts. The coral reefs in the monument are in reasonably good shape. The islands and atols are largely uninhabited, and the ecosystem as a whole has suffered relatively little damage from human activities.

Keep checking with Mike, who plans "to put up posts about the individual islands, atols, reefs, and banks that make up the new monument."

He closes with a sentiment I agree with - both parts of it:

Right now, I'll close by saying something that I never expected to: President Bush, you done good this time.