The US government this week announced it has begun the process to consider designating the waters surrounding the Pacific Remote Islands as a national marine sanctuary.
According to a White House fact sheet issued March 21st:
“The President will direct the Secretary of Commerce to consider initiating a new National Marine Sanctuary designation within the next 30 days to protect all U.S. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands. If completed, the new sanctuary would ensure the U.S. will reach the President’s goal of conserving at least 30% of ocean waters under American jurisdiction by 2030.”
The proposed sanctuary would help preserve about 770,000 square miles/2 million square kilometers “including the existing Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and currently unprotected submerged lands and waters. The region has a rich ancestral tie to many Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island communities.”
The government also wants to look into ways of renaming the existing Pacific Remote Islands National Monument — and even the islands themselves — “to honor the area’s heritage, ancestral pathways, and stopping points for Pacific Island voyagers, and to provide posthumous recognition for young Native Hawaiian men sent to secure U.S. territorial claim to the islands in the run up to World War II.”