In 2006, President George W. Bush created the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii, a 140,000 square mile sanctuary intended to protect the area’s 7,000 marine species, a quarter of which are only found in the Hawaiian Archipelago. And this year, President Obama expanded the underwater reserve by 442,781 square miles. With its expansion, Papahanaumokuakea is now one of the world’s largest marine reserves, second only to the Ross Sea, a protected zone of the Antarctic Ocean.
Along with his expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Monument, Mr. Obama designated the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, a 4,913 square mile protected area off the East Coast and the first marine reserve in the Atlantic Ocean.
