Some great news for Hawaii's Reef systems
Some great news for Hawaii's Reef systems
Whatever the reason...good news!
EDITORIAL: Orlando Sentinal
A bold move
Our position: President Bush's decision to protect sensitive Hawaiian waters was exemplary.
Posted June 17, 2006
It doesn't take much to decimate the Earth's fragile ecosystems. Private plundering, commercial accidents and government neglect all have managed it exceedingly well.
Government just as easily can preserve them, however. President George W. Bush's landmark act this week designating the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve a national monument shows how.
Mr. Bush's extraordinary designation effectively makes the 1,400 miles long, 100 miles wide archipelago a do-not-disturb zone. The only exceptions to that government rule will be certain scientists, educators, photographers and scuba divers granted government permits. Commercial fishermen, recreational boaters and others need not apply.
What Mr. Bush's action means to these Pacific waters, stretching as far as Chicago is to Miami, is nothing less than a lifeline to the extraordinary array of species that make those waters home.
Seabirds, seals, sea turtles and other wildlife long have been under siege there. That fact led to presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton giving it varying protective status. Mr. Bush's move goes further, though. Making the area a national monument takes it out of the reach of those who might have special designs on it, like, say, congressmen.
Scarcely a day goes by, for example, where that species of animal doesn't announce its interest in tapping the oceans' limited resources. Just last month they lost a close vote in the U.S. House of Representatives that, had it passed, could have led to drilling for natural gas just 3 miles off Florida's shores.
For the moment, Florida's shores are spared that kind of harebrained intrusion. The monument in the Pacific created by Mr. Bush spares species there any potentially harmful, human-authored intrusions, perhaps in perpetuity.
It's farsighted government intervention that should help preserve 7,000 marine and terrestrial species. It's exemplary action from the president and also a clear reminder of what individuals and government can do to protect the environment if the will is there.
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