Marine reserves not only protect the ocean life within them - they help to sustain surrounding ecosystems and animals that pass through them - like whales
Ok, this might take some believing, but apparently outgoing US President George W Bush just made a major contribution to protecting the oceans.
Yesterday the man better known for threatening our entire planet's future by dragging his feet on climate change and paying less attention to environmental conservation than any US president in history, announced plans for three 'national monuments' to be created in the Pacific. A total of 505,775 square kilometres [195,280 square miles], containing some of the most ecologically-rich areas of the world's oceans, will be protected - creating the largest marine reserves in the world.
The three sites, two focused on the Line Islands of the Central Pacific and the other on the Marianas Islands to the west, boast a rich array of marine life including sharks, rare whales, birds and many other top predators along with unique corals and intricate deep sea ecosystems. Nearly 60 percent of the total area protected will be subject to prohibitions on fishing and other extractive activities.
On hearing the news, our resident office wit Marge quipped that Bush must have assumed that the new 'marine reserves' were extra support troops for a new military push in Iraq, rather than protected areas of the ocean. However, that would probably be misunderestimating him, as he actually has a bit of history in this area, having authorised the protection of a large area of the Hawaiian Islands in 2006. In fact, unbelievably enough, by the time he leaves office in just under two weeks time Bush will have protected more ocean than any person in history. Proof positive that every clown has a silver lining, I guess...
Of course protecting sea life from dredging, fossil-fuel extraction and fishing is a very good thing, but what the oceans need protection from just as much, if not more so, is climate change. Something 'W' has been spectacularly bad at even acknowledging, let alone doing anything about. Climate change will have catastrophic impacts on our oceans including mass coral death due to rising sea temperatures and loss of species from ocean acidification.
While marine reserves cannot stop climate change, what they can do is reduce the amount of environmental stress on marine ecosystems - giving them a better chance to adapt to the changes brought about by global warming. But for this approach to work we'll need far more of them - in order for our oceans to stand a chance against rising global temperatures and ongoing overfishing we'll need to set aside as much as 40 percent of our oceans as marine reserves.
Which puts President Bush's contribution back into perspective - so far the total amount of ocean that will be fully protected by the Bush administration amounts to less than one percent of what scientists recommend.
So is there a lesson for us here? Perhaps that, in the game of environmental sin and sainthood, nobody is beyond redemption. Other world leaders who might be feeling guilty for not doing enough environmentally may also be looking for ways to atone for their sins. Perhaps if they all took this one leaf out Bush's book, we'd be a lot further along in reaching our goal - to save our seas - before it's too late.
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