Bush Proposes Protection For Extensive Areas of Pacific Ocean

President Bush has asked his secretaries of Interior, Defense, and Commerce to draw up plans to create marine sanctuaries or monuments in areas of the Pacific Ocean as large as Alaska and Texas combined. The 891,000 square miles of protected areas would encompass the Rose Atoll near American Samoa and waters surrounding the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. It’s not yet clear how strictly protected the marine territories will be, but Joshua Reichert of the Pew Environmental Group said that if fishing and mineral exploration are prohibited in the reserves “it would be one of the most significant environmental achievements of any U.S. president.” Though widely criticized by conservationists for his environmental policies, Bush has taken a lead in establishing marine reserves, including creating protected areas off the Pacific Northwest and the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.