Pursuing Additional Protections
Two Big Ocean member sites, which are also two of the worldʻs largest remote Large-Scale MPAs, are pursuing additional protections to complement and strengthen their existing protections as U.S. Marine National Monuments. The Papahānaumokuākea and Pacific Remote Islands are working to achieve a National Marine Sanctuary designation.
The nomination proposals for Papahānaumokuākea and the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monuments differ in their details, and the sites are at different stages of the process. Still, both original proposals outline protections that add to—rather than diminish—the management measures and protections provided by their respective existing presidential proclamations.
As Sanctuary designation can take several years to complete and requires significant staff time and resources, one could question the need to seek additional protections when both Monuments are prime examples of the most highly protected MPAs and some of the last wild and healthy marine ecosystems globally. The answer lies in how U.S. Monuments have been established through the executive authority of Presidents using the Antiquities Act of 1906.
As the president can create a marine national monument by presidential proclamation, Monuments can be established relatively quickly. This is important when public areas of national importance must be set aside and protected for future generations without delay. However, this mechanism wasnʻt created specifically for marine areas, and Monuments are managed differently than Sanctuaries. Additionally, there have been legal challenges to Monuments in recent years concerning the size of the areas and types of resources protected, the inclusion of non-federal lands within monument boundaries, restrictions on land uses, and how monuments were created.
Many proponents of Sanctuaries see them as a preferred mechanism of codifying protections because designation requires an act of Congress and is ultimately more challenging to dismantle. Sanctuaries are designed around public engagement processes and have advisory boards; volunteers also play an essential role in monument science, outreach, and education efforts. Additionally, since 2014, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), through the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS), has mainly used a locally driven sanctuary nomination process developed with input from more than 18,000 public comments. Communities now drive most nomination proposals and are the ones who complete and submit a substantive application packet.
PapahĀnaumokuĀkea
There is a long history of considering the area now known as Papahanaumokuakea for national marine sanctuary designation. It began with an Executive Order in 2000 by President William J. Clinton, who created the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, a protected area encompassing the most northern three-fourths of the most remote archipelago in the world. The National Marine Sanctuary Program started the designation process for the Reserve under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act in 2002. However, this process was stopped when President George W. Bush designated Papahānaumokuākea as a Marine National Monument under the Antiquities Act in 2006. Then, in 2016, the Monument Expansion Area was created by President Barack Obama and it specifically called for initiating the process to designate a national marine sanctuary. Finally, in 2020, the Senate Committee on Appropriations directed NOAA to begin the sanctuary designation process.
The agency's preferred boundary overlaps with the marine portions of the Monument and includes the marine environment surrounding the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands from the shoreline of the islands and atolls seaward to 200 nautical miles, including all state waters and waters of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, Midway Atoll and Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuges, and state of Hawaiʻi Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine Refuge. The ultimate goal is to protect entire ecosystems to ensure that critical ecological functions and biodiversity remain intact.
Papahānaumokuākea is within its public comment period from March 1 to May 7, 2024. NOAA and the state of Hawaii will co-host public meetings across April to gather input on the draft documents. The state of Hawaiʻi is also holding a separate but joint public comment process under Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes Chapter 343, the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act.
Pacific Remote Islands
The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument was established in 2009 and expanded in 2014 by Presidential Proclamation. In the lead-up to expansion, the Pacific Remote Islands Coalition was established and has continued to amplify the importance of protecting the cultural, natural, and historical legacy of these remarkable islands, atolls, and reefs. The Coalition is also the community group that submitted the Sanctuary Nomination application on March 11, 2023.
In an interesting turn of events, on March 23, 2023, before the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries could thoroughly review the nomination package, President Biden directed NOAA to consider initiating the designation of a national marine sanctuary in the Pacific Remote Islands. NOAA utilized the guidance in the Presidential Memorandum and initiated the designation process.
Pacific Remote Islands Coalition’s Proposed Sanctuary Boundaries.
Key differentiators of the Coalition's Pacific Remote Islands proposal are:
To protect submerged lands and waters extending to the full extent of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone around Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll, and Howland and Baker Islands that are not currently protected, including 98 seamounts. Protecting this additional area would make the Sanctuary larger than the current Monument and affirm the protections sought initially in 2014 with the first expansion.
To honor and amplify the sacrifices of the Hui Panalāʻau, a group of 130 young, primarily Native Hawaiian men, who occupied the islands of Howland, Baker, and Jarvis from 1935 to 1942 to ensure United States ownership during the Japanese military's advancement across the Pacific during World War II.
To develop a renaming process framed by Indigenous values and practices from those whose ancestors traversed this region of the remote Pacific, namely the Native Hawaiian, Chamorro, and Carolinian peoples.
The Office Of National Marine Sanctuaries is drafting the Designation Documents, and it is unclear whether the PRI Coalition's requests will appear as they were initially written. However, as the process moves into the public comment period, those who support furthering the protection of this remote region will have an opportunity to ask for what they want and to make comments on the draft EIS and management plan.
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If you want to comment on Papahānaumokuākea’s proposed Sanctuary Designation, you have until May 7, 2024. Learning more about the current Sanctuary Nomination Inventory might be helpful in providing comprehensive support to the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. To keep track of the status of the Pacific Remote Islands proposed designation or to support the region for the ling term, learn more about the PRI Coalition.