Archived Project

Global Ocean Legacy

Pacific Remote Islands

On September 24, 2014, the administration of President Barack Obama announced it would expand protections for the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. The president extended the boundaries around three of the monument’s five marine reserves—Johnston Atoll, Wake Atoll, and Jarvis Island—from the area 50 miles from shore, designated by President George W. Bush in 2009, to 200 miles from shore.

Taken together, the expanded protections for the waters around these atolls and islands—which are not contiguous—provide approximately an additional 408,000 square miles (approximately 1,050,000 square kilometers) to the monument. With this announcement, the amount of U.S. ocean territory highly protected doubled, from about 6 percent to 15 percent.

Research shows that highly protected marine reserves are essential to rebuilding the abundance and diversity of ocean species and increasing the resilience of habitats and ecosystems to climate change. Healthy oceans also have a greater ability to sequester carbon dioxide and generate oxygen.

The Pew Charitable Trusts worked with scientists, stakeholders, and the public to ensure that the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument received the additional protection it deserved.

Our Work

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Project

Le projet Héritage des océans de Pew et Bertarelli

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Project

De la chaleur de l'équateur au froid rigoureux des pôles, les océans sont le lien qui unit notre planète. Représentant plus de 70 pour cent de la surface terrestre, ils abritent près d'un quart des espèces connues dans le monde, sans compter celles qui restent encore à découvrir. Mais les océans sont de plus en plus menacés par les activités humaines.

Podcast

Our Blue Planet–Protecting the Ocean

Episode 6

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Podcast

Three-quarters of our planet is covered with water—and it’s this water that sustains life. But our liquid planet, home to half of the world’s known creatures and plants, is facing multiple threats, such as overfishing and commercial development. That’s why leading scientists say that 30 percent of our oceans should be protected. Host Dan LeDuc explores why this 30 percent data point is important with two people committed to safeguarding the oceans: native Hawaiian Sol Kaho’ohalahala, whose culture and livelihood depend on sustainable seas; and Matt Rand, who directs the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project and has been working with people like Kaho’ohalahala since 2006 to keep our oceans healthy.

Where We Work
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Global Ocean Legacy works with local communities, governments and scientists around the world to protect and conserve some of our most important and unspoiled ocean environments.

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Global Ocean Legacy works with local communities, governments and scientists around the world to protect and conserve some of our most important and unspoiled ocean environments.

Learn More

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Aloha ‘āina (To Love That Which Feeds Us)