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June 16, 2006
The World's Largest Marine Sanctuary
President Bush created the world's largest marine sanctuary Thursday, designating nearly 140,000 square miles (360,000 square km) of sea and land as the United States' newest national monument. The area covers the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, an archipelago that stretches some 1,400 miles (2,250 km) across the Pacific Ocean--roughly the distance from Boston to the Florida Everglades.
"It's the single-largest act of ocean conservation in history," says Conrad Lautenbacher, head of America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That may well be true. The sanctuary is slightly larger than Australia's Great Barrier Reef and covers nearly as much area as Japan.
Visit the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Sanctuary Site.
Big Sanctuary, Small Islands
How can the president set aside such a huge stretch of Hawaiian territory? ...
Don't picture the big, beachy Hawaiian islands you've been longing to visit. Unlike the eight main (or "Windward") Hawaiian Islands, the Northwestern (or "Leeward") Hawaiian Islands have almost no human inhabitants. Instead, the string of tiny islands, atolls, coral reefs, and underwater mountains plays home to more than 7,000 other species, around a quarter of which are endemic--found nowhere else in the world.
Some species are endemic to a single island or reef. Nihoa Island covers just 171 acres (less than 1 square km), but it's home to two unique bird species--the Nihoa finch and the Nihoa millerbird. It's also the nearest of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to the main islands. Around 150 miles (240 km) of ocean separate Nihoa from Kauai, one of the big eight. Near the other end of the protected archipelago stands Midway Atoll, site of one of World War II's most important naval battles.
Big News for Big Fish
Beneath the islands and atolls lie some of the planet's last large coral reef ecosystems, underwater worlds in which apex predators--the fish on top of the food chain, like sharks and jacks--still rule the roost. Such predators currently account for more than half of the total fish biomass in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, compared to less than 3 percent in the rest of Hawaii. Scientists hope the sanctuary will help keep it that way.
Other species should enjoy the sanctuary, too. Endangered Hawaiian monk seals rely on the islands for breeding and the coral reefs for food. And around 90 percent of Hawaii's green sea turtles make their nests in the region, as do millions of tropical seabirds.
Posted by sue at June 16, 2006 09:03 AM