The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden announced on 21 March that it has ordered U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to consider creating a new marine sanctuary that would protect roughly 770,000 square miles of ocean.
The new sanctuary would be created around the Pacific Remote Islands using the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, and according to a release from the administration is intended to continue Biden’s commitment to conserving 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030 – commonly referred to as the “30 by 30” plan. The full conservation area would represent the largest sanctuary of its kind in the world, and would include the existing Remote Island Marine National Monument and “currently unprotected submerged lands and waters.”
“Such protections would encompass areas unaddressed by previous administrations so all areas of U.S. jurisdiction around the islands, atolls, and reef of the Pacific Remote Islands will be protected,” a White House press release said.
Advocates for the protection said the waters are home to endangered species, and U.S. Representative Ed Case (D-Hawaii) also came out in support of the effort.
“These waters are among the last pristine marine environments on our Earth, and also the most-fragile,” Case said in a news release. “Our world’s oceans are at mortal risk, a breaking point precipitated by the unsustainable overfishing and other resource extraction, debris and land-based pollution, exacerbated and compounded by the devastating and pervasive marine effects of climate change.”
