Obama To Create World’s Largest Marine Park In The Pacific

US President Barack Obama is set to create the world’s largest marine reserve in the Pacific Ocean, banning fishing and other commercial activities across vast swaths of unspoiled sea populated by whales, dolphins and sea turtles and dotted with coral atolls.

Obama’s plan is to expand the reserve, previously created by George Bush, to about six times its current size, to cover about 490,000 square miles around remote tropical atolls and islands in the south-central Pacific Ocean.


The Marine Conservation Institute had been pressing Obama to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument reserve to the fullest extent possible, around all seven islands and atolls, covering about 782,000 sq m instead of the 490,000.

However, Obama’s plan has triggered an opposition movement, since the expansion of the marine park will affect the tuna industry, as commercial activities will be banned in the island state of Kiribati, which is one of the last great tuna grounds left in the world.


But after protests from Hawaii-based tuna fleets, Obama opted to leave the seas open to fishing around Howland and Baker islands, Palmyra atoll and Kingman Reef.

Ocean protection is one of Obama's signature issues adopted in his second term – with assistance from the secretary of state, John Kerry, who is a veteran supporter of environmental causes.