President Bush to Designate Massive Ocean Protection

Joshua S Hill — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:52:48 +0000

In a step that has me completely baffled, but may do a measure in redeeming him in the eyes of the environmentally friendly, President George W Bush has sent a memo to cabinet secretaries proposing the designation of two new marine national monuments within US jurisdiction.

The proposed monuments – loosely termed; as far as I can tell there will be no massive brass or bronze statues anywhere – are the Central Pacific Islands and areas around the Northern Mariana Islands.

One of the monuments, the Central Pacific Islands, would equate to a size four and a half times all the US National Parks, and measure in at close to the size of Alaska. The area would include eight islands and coral reef atolls in the Line Islands and American Samoa, and their surrounding waters.

The second area would cover parts of the Northern Mariana Islands, located in the Western Pacific, including the area that is known as the Mariana Trench, the deepest yet recorded part of our planet’s oceans.

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President Bush to Designate Massive Ocean Protection