Word: oceaneering
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Over the course of his two terms in office, President George W. Bush has taken a lot of mostly justified flak from environmentalists. But there's one area where Bush can legitimately claim a deep-green legacy: the oft overlooked field of ocean conservation...
...Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off the northwestern coast of the Hawaiian Islands - at the time, the largest protected marine area in the U.S. Tuesday afternoon, however, Bush will beat his own record, announcing the creation of three separate marine national monuments in the central Pacific Ocean that together will span some 195,000 sq. mi. Though greens were hoping for an even larger area, taken together, the marine monuments will mean that President Bush - perhaps the least environmental President in U.S. history - will have protected more of the ocean than anyone else in the world. "He deserves a huge amount...
...marine monuments will comprise the ocean waters within a 50-nautical-mile radius of the protected islands and will safeguard virtually the whole of the Mariana Trench. Commercial fishing will be banned within the monuments, and mining, oil exploration and other commercial activity will be limited. (Sportfishing and other boating may be allowed within the region, but only on a permitted basis.) Those protections will shield the rich, pristine marine life found among the coral reefs of the central Pacific, which includes hundreds of species of rare birds and fish. Though most of the monument areas are so remote that...
...ocean lovers, Bush's decision is a long overdue recognition that the seas are just as deserving of conservation as the land is. But while the U.S. has been establishing national parks for more than 130 years (beginning with Yellowstone National Park in 1872), we're only just now moving to protect the ocean and the multitude of life that depends on it. "We're more than a hundred years behind terrestrial conservation," says Nelson. And there's still a lot of ground to make up. A study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimated that less...
Bush's monuments will go a long way toward closing that gap, though their success will depend on how well the protections work. The Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument officially bans any material that might damage corals or sea life, but ocean currents still sweep 57 tons of garbage a year into the protected area - and cleanup efforts, hampered by budget reductions, can't keep pace. And the sheer isolation of the central Pacific monuments, which helps shield them from pollution, makes policing the waters even more difficult and costly. "Actually following through on this will be a real issue," says...