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sundubuman · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Location: seoul

Bush uses his pen........

Hawaiian islands become world's biggest marine reserve

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a coral-fringed swath of the Pacific, came under US environmental protection, becoming the world's biggest protected marine reserve.

With a stroke of a pen, US President George W Bush gave immediate protection to an area that stretches across 2,250 kilometres, covering nearly 362,600 square kilometres, edging out in size Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

"We will protect a precious natural resource," Mr Bush said at a White House ceremony where he declared a string of Pacific islands and submerged volcanoes a national monument.

"We will show our respect for the cultural and historical importance of this area and we will create an important place for research and learning about how we can be good stewards of our oceans and our environment."

The monument designation, Mr Bush's first, means a marine area greater in size than 46 of the 50 US states will be sheltered from overfishing, while allowing Hawaiians to use the area for traditional purposes.

The protected area starts about 260 kilometres west of the inhabited Hawaiian island of Kauai and stretches nearly 1,900 kilometres from Nihoa Island in the east to Kure Atoll in the west.

The area includes the world's most remote and relatively undisturbed coral reef ecosystem and supports more than 7,000 species, including more than 100 species unique to those islands, the Pew Charitable Trusts' Environment Division says, praising the White House decision.

Important species include the green sea turtle and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal - the only surviving marine mammal wholly dependent on coral reefs.

happeningthang · Joined: 26 Apr 2003

Never thought I'd say it....

Dubya did something right.

numazawa · Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Location: The Concrete Barnyard

Not so fast... Look, first he's gonna create the biggest ever Marine Reserve, see -- whoa, sure as shootin' he'll be bringin' back the draft next.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

The draft? Maybe, but more likely he'll propose using nukes to drill for oil on the north coast of Alaska...or declare Democrats a noxious life form and order their extinction.

dogbert · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Location: Killbox 90210

numazawa · Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Location: The Concrete Barnyard

Well it seems they found the magic formula finally, after fumbling on first presentation by telling him it was "for the marine habitat..." -- which only prompted him to bark, "Well c'mon, spit it out! Their habit at what?"

sundubuman · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Location: seoul

here's a map of the newest National Monument

stvwrd · Joined: 31 Mar 2005

A step in the right direction, yes, but I find the backstory a bit unsettling:

happeningthang · Joined: 26 Apr 2003

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

thats great news!

imagine if more presidents around the world had the time to watchTV documentaries about their threatened environment?

Bush has just helped protect fish stocks. If you preserve their spawning grounds (reef), then you safeguard ocean productivity. way to go.

EFLtrainer · Joined: 04 May 2005

Yeah, way to go.

Let's see that peckerwood do anything like that where there's a significant business interest. This is NOTHING but a vote buy. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it, but it's a case of the cost in the end - an unrealistic understadning of Bush and the Republican agenda in general - probably being far, far above the benefits. We'd probably be much better off in the long run if he'd done nothing if this does anything at all to keep those idiots in control of the WH and Congress. Someone would have given it more protection in the future, more than likely. And it didn't seem to be in dire straights before, so...