President Barack Obama used his executive powers to create the world's largest fully-protected marine reserve in the central Pacific Ocean on Thursday.
Obama's proclamation will expand the Pacific Remote Island National Marine Monument from 87,000 square miles to more than 490,000 square miles, and will outlaw commercial fishing in the area, according to The White House. The expansion will help protect the deep coral reefs, seamounts and the marine ecosystems unique to the south-central Pacific Ocean.
Secretary of State John Kerry made the announcement at an oceans meeting in New York on Sept. 25. The meeting followed up a similar summit he held in June.
"We have a responsibility to make sure our kids and their families and the future has the same ocean to serve it in the same way as we have - not to be abused, but to preserve and utilize," Kerry said. "And we're talking about an area of ocean that's nearly twice the size of Texas, and that will be protected in perpetuity from commercial fishing and other resource-extraction activities, like deep-water mining."
The president has protected more federal land and sea by executive power than any other president in the last 50 years, The Washington Post reported. It's the twelfth time Obama has protected the environment under the 1906 Antiquities Act. George W. Bush established the marine reserve in 2009.
Obama announced a "more ambitious plan" in June to further protect more marine areas. His administration chose the Monument because scientists identified large, protected marine reserves as the best way to rebuild biodiversity, support fish populations and improve overall ecosystem resilience, according to The White House.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) thinks the president has overstepped his bounds. The chairman of the House Natural Resources subcommittee on public lands and environmental regulation tried to push through wilderness bills, but Democrats objected to provisions that allowed motorized vehicles in some areas.
"He is using the Antiquities Act not to save or preserve anything, but as a political weapon before the election," Bishop told the Post.
The proclamation will ban deep-sea mining, but some recreational and traditional fishing will be allowed if they are "consistent with the conservation goals of the Monument," according to The White House.
