Obama will propose vast expansion of Pacific Ocean marine sanctuary

Other countries are moving ahead with their own marine reserves. The British government is considering creating a sanctuary around the Pitcairn Islands — an area in the Pacific inhabited by descendants of the mutineers from the HMS Bounty and their Tahitian companions — according to people briefed on the decision.

Anote Tong, president of the small Pacific island nation of Kiribati, announced Monday that he will close an area roughly the size of California to commercial fishing by the end of this year. “It’s our contribution to humanity,” Tong said in an interview.

Pew Charitable Trusts Executive Vice President Joshua S. Reichert said Obama should also consider expanding the borders of the monuments Bush created in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the Marianas Trench. He said the 1906 Antiquities Act, which allows such designations, is “one of the great equalizers in the ongoing struggle to preserve some of the best examples of America’s natural heritage. Without it, many of these places would long ago have succumbed to the pickax, the chain saw and the dredge, leaving us all poorer as a result.”

Ben Halpern, an environmental science professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the lead scientist for the Ocean Health Index, said maritime issues rank low on politicians’ priority lists because people are disconnected from the sea. “Every single person on the planet benefits from the health of the ocean, but most of them don’t realize it,” he said.

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