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Statement of Joshua S. Reichert, Pew Environment Group, on Potential New Marine Monuments

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Washington, DC – 08/25/2008 – Joshua S. Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, issued the following statement in response to President Bush’s announcement today of three new areas in U.S. ocean waters that will be assessed for possible protection as marine sanctuaries or monuments.

“Two years ago President Bush set a new standard for global ocean protection when he established the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the largest marine protected area in the world, in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Today’s announcement by the White House of another group of sites in U.S. waters that will be assessed for possible protection is a hopeful sign for ocean conservation.

“Monument or sanctuary designation by itself does not necessarily convey a high degree of protection, and could allow a host of activities including commercial and recreational fishing, and deep sea mining, among others. However, if the president establishes these new sites as no take reserves, where no extractive activity is allowed, it would be one of the most significant environmental achievements of any U.S. President.

“One of the potential sites is in the waters off the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific. In addition to containing some of the world’s most unspoiled ocean habitats and unique species of marine life, this area encompasses the world’s deepest canyon, the Mariana Trench, which at nearly 36,000 feet, could swallow Mt. Everest with room to spare. Protecting places such as these preserves their unique biological and ecological characteristics, increases the abundance of fish and other marine life, and often creates a source of economic vitality for the local area through jobs generated by tourism, research and education, and monument management.

“Overfishing, pollution, coastal development, climate change and other threats are pushing our oceans to the brink of collapse. If the president moves ahead and designates these sites as fully protected no take reserves, he will have preserved more of the world’s oceans in the form of reserves than any other person in history, and will have led the nation into a new era of ocean conservation.”

SUBJECT: Potential Marine Conservation Management Areas

The Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality has advised me there are objects of historic and scientific interest in areas under the jurisdiction of the United States that may be appropriate for recognition, protection, or improved conservation and management under available authorities including by executive order or action under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.), Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.), National Marine Sanctuaries Act (16 U.S.C. 1431, et seq.), or the Antiquities Act (16 U.S.C. 431). These objects include:

In the central Pacific, coral reefs, pinnacles, sea mounts, islands and surrounding waters of Johnston Atoll, Howland, Baker and Jarvis Islands, Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll, Wake Island, and Rose Atoll that are isolated from population centers, mostly uninhabited, and support endemic, depleted, migratory, endangered and threatened species of fish, giant clams, crabs, marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds, migratory shorebirds and corals that are rapidly vanishing elsewhere in the world. The reefs in these areas support unique localized upwelling-based productivity, and two of the atolls are repositories of the larvae of many marine species transported from the biodiversity-rich western Pacific.

In the western Pacific Ocean, the marine waters around the northern islands of Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, including the Mariana Trench, that offer an exceptional and diverse collection of marine life and habitat.

Please provide to me your assessment, with relevant supporting information, including the views of the territorial and local governments and other interested parties, of the advisability of providing additional recognition, protection or improved conservation and management for objects of historic or scientific interest at these islands, coral reefs, geologic features and surrounding marine waters.

Because Johnston Atoll and Wake Island have supported active military bases, and the other areas in the Pacific include areas of strategic importance to the United States, any measures your assessment recommends should not limit the Department of Defense from carrying out the mission of the various branches of the military stationed or operating within the Pacific and shall be consistent with freedom of navigation and international law. Please also consider cultural, environmental, economic, and multiple use implications of any measures you recommend, including the extent to which they are compatible, if applicable, with sustaining access to: (1) recreational and commercial fishing; (2) energy and mineral resources; and (3) opportunities for scientific study.

With respect to each of these areas, your assessment should further identify whether there are opportunities and mechanisms for improved coordination of management among relevant agencies in accordance with Executive Order 13366 of December 17, 2004.

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