Obama establishes world's largest marine reserve

President Barack Obama today burnished his environmental legacy by establishing the world's largest marine reserve, home to thousands of rare sea creatures in the northwestern Hawaiian islands.

Obama's announcement more than quadrupled the size of the existing protected area, known as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which is now 582,578 square miles (1.5 million square kilometers) -- about four times the size of California.

The waters are home to pristine coral reefs and hundreds of animals found nowhere else on Earth, including a new species of ghost octopus discovered only this year and the world's oldest living organism, black coral, which is estimated to be 4,265 years old.

Some 14 million seabirds soar over the area and make their nests on the islands, including a 65-year-old albatross named Wisdom. The area is home as well to threatened green turtles and endangered Hawaiian monk seals.

The marine monument was established in 2006 by then president George W. Bush and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010. "By expanding the monument, President Obama has increased protections for one of the most biologically and culturally significant places on the planet," said Joshua Reichert, an executive vice president at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Greenpeace also hailed what it called a "bold decision" that will ban commercial fishing and mineral extraction in the region. US Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, said in a statement that the expansion will create "a safe zone that will replenish stocks of tuna, promote biodiversity and fight climate change."

Obama "has given Native Hawaiians a greater voice in managing this precious resource," Schatz said. But some expressed disappointment over the move to expand the zone to 200 miles from shore, saying that it imperils fishermen's ability to make a living.

"Closing 60 percent of Hawaii's waters to commercial fishing, when science is telling us that it will not lead to more productive local fisheries, makes no sense," said Edwin Ebiusi Jr., chair of the Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council. "Today is a sad day in the history of Hawaii's fisheries and a negative blow to our local food security."

But Matt Rand, director of the Global Ocean Legacy project at the Pew Charitable Trusts, took a different view, saying that the change should have "a minimal economic impact" on fishing in the area.