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Bush's move on Hawaii laudable

By Times editorial
Published June 20, 2006

President Bush has not acted often to save the environment, but when he did the other day it was a whopper. He created the largest marine reserve in the world - more expansive than Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park - by declaring almost 140,000 square miles of uninhabited Hawaiian islands, ocean and coral reefs a national monument.

The designation will end commercial fishing in the area over the next five years and protect more than 7,000 species, a quarter of them unique to the place. Conrad Lautenbacher, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which will manage the newly designated Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument, described its significance this way: "It is a place to maintain biodiversity and to maintain basically the nurseries of the Pacific."

Now a significant part of Bush's legacy will be forever linked to this act of environmental heroism. Though few Americans will ever get to see the monument - it's a two-day trip by boat from the nearest populated islands - they should be comforted by this important step to renew our dwindling ocean resources. In fact, Congress should be motivated to pass a strengthened Magnuson Stevens Act, the laws by which our fisheries are managed that are currently being debated.

Bush said he was drawn to the plight of the islands and reefs after viewing a documentary film by Jean-Michel Cousteau, Jacques Cousteau's son. The younger Cousteau found the coral and waters littered with debris from 52 countries. "There's a lot of really nasty stuff happening over there," he said.

Thanks to Bush, the story could have a happy ending.

[Last modified June 20, 2006, 06:08:35]