Chefs are uniquely aware of food — from how we cook and present it, to where it’s sourced.

In Hawaii, we depend on the ocean’s bounty. It is inherent in us to care for and protect the marine environment that feeds us. Only then can we pass our enjoyment on to our children and their children.

Fortunately, President Barack Obama has the opportunity to increase ocean protection in a huge way — he can extend Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, with an exception for the waters around Kauai and Niihau used by local small-boat fishermen. This is an effort that I fully support.

We need a bold step like this because times have changed. Warming waters, bleached corals, overfishing and pollution are wreaking havoc on our ecosystems and threatening the vital habitat necessary for marine creatures to survive. Few places on the globe remain untouched, and they’re vanishing fast.

One such place at risk is Papahanaumokuakea, which was established by President George W. Bush in 2006, as the world’s largest marine protected area at that time.

This area, protecting 50 nautical miles out from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, is not only considered sacred to Native Hawaiians but it also shelters a wide variety of fish, marine mammals, seabirds and other aquatic species.

Solving the ocean’s problems will take many things, but surely an important part of that will be creating havens where ocean life can safely grow and reproduce, and then help restock the surrounding waters.

Though proven effective, only about 2 percent of the ocean is safeguarded in this way, and scientists tell us that we need to designate far more such areas — perhaps as much as 30 percent of the ocean habitat.

Expanding Papahanaumokuakea would go a long way toward achieving that, if we increase the zone of protection from the current 50 miles from shore to the full 200 miles out.

My interest in all of this is, of course, as a chef, but my deep appreciation for the ocean comes directly from my upbringing.

I was raised by older Hawaiian fishermen in Hukilau Bay, in Laie at the old boat house.

These fishermen practiced “kapu” fishing — they knew when to leave the ocean alone so that stock could replenish, and to take only what you need to feed your family. It was a life-learning experience that bears directly on my desire to expand our marine protections today.

Fast-forward to modern times and I think it’s fair to say that I know Hawaii seafood. My decades spent as a chef and restaurateur, and my efforts to establish and elevate Pacific Rim cuisine, led the mayor of Hawaii County to name me “Hawaii’s Culinary Ambassador,” and others to call me the “Godfather of Poke.”

I take all this with a grain of salt, but these kinds of titles remind me of my responsibility to help educate people about the reality of seafood issues in Hawaii. As chefs, where we source our seafood matters. How it is caught matters. And how it is protected matters perhaps most of all.

President Obama now has a chance that doesn’t come along very often. Here in Hawaii he can help safeguard the health of the oceans, and help ensure our future food supply, by extending Papahanaumo- kuakea.

Chefs and lovers of seafood, including me, would applaud.

Sam Choy, Hawaii chef and one of the original founders of Pacific Rim cuisine, currently owns three restaurants, in Tokyo, Guam and Hawaii Island. He can also be seen on KHON TV’s “Sam Choy’s in the Kitchen.”