World Wildlife Fund

World's Largest Marine Reserve Created

In June 2006, President Bush designated the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a national monument, creating the world's largest marine reserve and sparing the area the damage that human activities have inflicted on most U.S. ocean ecosystems. 

The new monument is a remarkable string of islands, reefs, and atolls that harbors endangered Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles, huge schools of large fish, myriad bird species, and almost 70 percent of the coral reefs under United States control.  It is one of the last large intact marine ecosystems in the world.  Although largely untouched, this coral reef ecosystem has suffered from unsustainable use.

In 2004, the area had been proposed for designation as a marine sanctuary.  WWF activists like you sent nearly 20,000 letters between August 2004 and April 2005 urging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to ensure that the proposed sanctuary provide lasting and comprehensive protection for the ecosystem.

Subsequently, President Bush decided to designate the area as a national monument, giving it immediate protection and precluding the need for the area to go through a long process to designate it as a marine sanctuary.

WWF thanks everyone who spoke out for this outstanding marine ecosystem. 

Past Alerts
Save a Pristine Coral Reef Ecosystem - 8/3/2004