Yes folks, you heard right, this afternoon President George W. Bush will set aside three remote and uninhabited portions of Pacific island chains as national monuments to protect them from oil and gas extraction.  In a surprisingly earth-friendly move,  which Andy has followed for a while, Bush will be responsible for the largest marine conservation in history.  And while his efforts are certainly commendable, they certainly don’t redeem him from prior environmental blunders in which he consistently favored industry pursuits over the protection of wildlife and land preservation.

The areas include the Mariana Trench, Rose Atoll and seven islands along the equator, each containing unique species and some of the rarest geological formations.  The designations will ban most commercial fishing, limit recreational and indigenous fishing, and prohibit all seafloor mining, but covers a smaller area and is not as strict as supporters had hoped. It will now be left to President-Elect Obama to decide how the areas will be managed and protected.

takepart by learning more about protecting the oceans with Conservation International.

Photo: RaeA’s Flickr Photostream (Creative Commons)