Bush To Declare 3 Pacific Ocean Areas As National Monuments

January 5, 2009 11:20 p.m. EST

Washington, DC (AHN) - U.S. President George Bush will sign on Tuesday at the White House a declaration designating three areas of the Pacific Ocean as national monuments and protected marine sanctuaries.

The declaration aims to ban commercial extraction and fishing in a 115,000-square-mile area northeast of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in the northern Pacific, where the Mariana Trench is located, as well as around Rose Atoll in American Samoa and the waters surrounding Johnston Atoll, Howland, Baker and Jarvis Islands, Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island in the central Pacific. Only recreational fishing, tourism and scientific research will be allowed within 50 nautical miles from the said monuments.

The proposed Mariana Trench Marine National Monument covers the world's deepest spot at 36,000 feet and the CNMI islands of Maug, Asuncion, and Uracas. The Rose Atoll Marine National Monument is the world's smallest coral atoll and one of the most remote atoll.

Together with the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, they will be the largest marine conservation area in history at 195,280 square miles. The three marine areas are home of rare marine species, coral reefs and underwater volcanoes.