Hawaii coalition urges Biden to expand remote marine national monument

A coalition of Hawaii scientists, conservationists and cultural practitioners is calling on President Joe Biden to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to create the largest highly protected marine sanctuary in the world.

Members of the Pacific Remote Islands Coalition sent a letter to the White House Wednesday asking for the president to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to expand the national monument by more than 265,000 square miles.

The proposed expansion would extend the protected area around two sets of uninhabited islands — Howland and Baker — and atolls — Kingman Reef and Palmyra — from 50 to 200 nautical miles, which would be the full extent of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.

“In today’s world, climate change is affecting our planet globally, and places like these remote islands, atolls and reefs represent some of the priority areas that we need to protect,” said Kekuewa Kikiloi, associate professor in the Hawai‘inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument was first established in 2009 by former President George W. Bush under the Antiquities Act. The original monument was 83,000 square miles.

It was expanded to nearly 500,000 square miles in 2014 by former President Barack Obama under the same authority — a century-old law that allows presidents to protect sites considered historic, geographically or culturally important.

The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which also is home to seven national wildlife refuges, is described by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as representing one of the last frontiers of scientific discovery in the world and a safe haven for Central Tropical Pacific biodiversity.

In making its argument for expansion, the coalition says the waters of the remote islands are home to scores of threatened, endangered and critically endangered species including sharks, rays, whales, seabirds and turtles.

What’s more, the unprotected areas are home to 98 seamounts, which are known to be ecological hot spots with species never seen before.

“Expanding the monument boundaries will safeguard areas of open ocean ecosystems that are intricately connected to nearshore coral reefs, and would protect habitats for endangered and threatened species, such as sharks and birds, who travel far beyond the current boundaries to breed, forage, and rest,” marine biologist James W. Akana Murphy said in a news release.

Murphy is one of 18 scientists and academics who are authors of an 87-page paper presenting the scientific and cultural case for the proposed expansion.

Biden, the paper says, has the opportunity to prevent threats such as seabed mining and to help boost the area’s resilience to climate change.

The vast stretch of ocean harbors an important whale habitat, including for a species of beaked whale new to science, according to the paper, while the unprotected waters serve as a migration route for endangered leatherback sea turtles when they travel between California and Indonesia.

As for the cultural case, the paper points out that the remote ocean waters have been used for passage by Polynesians, Micronesians and possibly Melanesians who relied on the intact ecosystems for voyaging.

The area is also home to a number of shipwrecks, World War II artifacts and the remnants of a campaign to colonize Howland, Baker and Jarvis islands with Kamehameha School volunteers in a scheme to lay claim for U.S. annexation.

“Preservation of the area to its full extent is an important commitment to Indigenous cultures — and to the healthy ecological areas that they rely upon,” the paper concludes. “With the planet’s last healthy places in peril, now is the time to take action and fully protect the Pacific Remote Islands.”

In its letter, the coalition asks Biden to consider renaming the national monument to reflect the signifi­- cance of the area to Pacific Islander cultures. The letter also asks the administration to come to the islands to learn more about the issue and hear from the people involved in the effort.

While Bush created the monument and Obama expanded it, former President Donald Trump considered reducing its size in 2017 when his interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, recommended he do so.

The recommendation, revealed in a leaked memo, came after Trump issued an executive order calling for a review of 27 sites designated by former presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama.

Despite the recommendation, the Trump administration never followed through with the reduction proposal.

Trump did, however, slash 2 million acres from Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, areas that had encompassed 3.2 million acres in southern Utah with ancient cliff dwellings and petroglyphs.

Last year Biden restored the two sprawling monuments.

In his own letter to the president, U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, expressed support for the coalition’s proposal. He also noted that expanding the monument would fulfill the administration’s goal of bringing 30% of the country’s marine resources under protection as called for in Biden’s America the Beautiful initiative.

The coalition says now is the time to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to give the area full protection.

“The time to go big with ocean protection is now,” said Nai‘a Lewis, a veteran advocate for large-scale marine protected areas.