At last we have some good news for the fast vanishing sea-dwellers. It’s just like a sudden twist of fate for the little creatures- while many countries are fighting for a long time to increase their fishing-quota, US President George W. Bush has proposed for the Largest Marine Sanctuary. The plan is likely to grant national-monument status to Pacific island regions that together are larger than Alaska and Texas combined. If it is implemented in reality, then it would be the largest protected marine reserve on this earth.
These specified islands along with the water will be a complete ban for any sort of mineral extraction, gas drilling, fishing etc. As per the plan, the central Pacific islands include Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Jarvis and Howland Islands whereas the western islands include parts of the Mariana Trench along with coral reef islands called atolls. Marine ecologist Enric Sala describes the region as ‘a great choice’ because it is a home to thousands of beautiful species, like the seabirds, whales, sharks, dolphins, sea-turtles and coral reefs etc. But the question is that would it be actually implemented in near future and maintained as required. There are many smaller marine sanctuaries, but it’s challenging to maintain all these. From the environmental point of view, it’s an admirable plan. But we wish this beautiful plan should not be kept just inside the documents.
Source: nationalgeographic