One of President Bush’s most ambitious environmental projects — the creation of two vast marine reserves in the Pacific Ocean — is being challenged by Vice President Cheney and by some Pacific Island leaders for restricting fishing and mineral exploration over too wide an area. The president’s wife, Laura Bush, is a strong proponent of the plan, which would restrict or ban fishing and other economic activities across much of an area around the Marianas Islands and in a remote, 2,000-mile stretch of the Pacific known as the Line Islands. The most controversial proposed reserve is in the Marianas, which would protect the deepest ocean canyon in the world — the 6.8-mile-deep Marianas Trench — as part of a marine reserve nearly half the size of Texas. Cheney and Marianas officials argue that the reserve infringes upon the sovereignty of the northern Marianas — a U.S. commonwealth between Japan and Guam — and ignores the longstanding successful stewardship of the area’s fisheries. Though widely criticized for his environmental record, Bush has been praised by conservationists for his marine initiatives, which already have led to the creation of ocean reserves off the U.S.’s Pacific Northwest coast and in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
Bush Marine Reserve Plan Is Opposed by Cheney and Islanders
More From E360
-
Energy
Why U.S. Geothermal May Advance, Despite Political Headwinds
-
Food & Agriculture
In War Zones, a Race to Save Key Seeds Needed to Feed the World
-
Climate
Lightning Strikes the Arctic: What Will It Mean for the Far North?
-
RIVERS
A Win for Farmers and Tribes Brings New Hope to the Klamath
-
Solutions
Deconstructing Buildings: The Quest for New Life for Old Wood
-
NATURAL DEFENSES
How Restored Wetlands Can Protect Europe from Russian Invasion
-
Solutions
Birds vs. Wind Turbines: New Research Aims to Prevent Deaths
-
FORESTS
Cambodian Forest Defenders at Risk for Exposing Illegal Logging
-
OPINION
The ‘Green’ Aviation Fuel That Would Increase Carbon Emissions
-
CONSERVATION
Out of the Wild: How A.I. Is Transforming Conservation Science
-
Energy
China’s Mega Dam Project Poses Big Risks for Asia’s Grand Canyon
-
Solutions
How Natural Solutions Can Help Islands Survive Sea Level Rise