President Obama’s action last week to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument by nearly six times its current size, creating the world’s largest marine park, may have a significant side effect: bolstering the Pacific-island nation of Palau’s plan to ban all commercial fishing from its waters.
FERN contributing reporter Shannon Service first reported on Palau’s plan to ban fishing in a vast region of the Pacific in a story with FERN media partner The Guardian. It would section off more than 230,000 square miles of ocean, which has one of the world’s largest healthy population of tuna. While the U.S.’s Pacific Remote Islands National Monument is a good distance from Palau, the newly expanded reserve will be nearly twice the size of Palau’s proposed sanctuary and will require significant resources to protect and enforce its ban on illegal fishing.
Seth Horstmeyer, Campaigns Director of the Global Ocean Legacy at Pew Charitable Trusts, says the President’s proclamation is good news for Palau. “We think it will make it easier for countries like Palau,” Horstmeyer says, “Especially because we think that there will be opportunities to partner on enforcement and other aspects of management of reserves.”
Protecting Palau’s waters will not be easy. Service reported in her March 26 story that Palau depends on a single patrol boat to police its waters. Horstmeyer says, “Enforcement is moving into the direction where you don’t necessarily need boots on the deck.”
He said the United States often uses satellites, manned and unmanned aircraft and fishing vessel transmission tracking technology to monitor its waters. “So, if the U.S. is putting more investment into those tools,” Horstmeyer says, “We do think that there are opportunities to share costs and expertise to countries like Palau to make sure the closed off areas are indeed closed off.”
While Palau’s President Tommy Remengesau Jr. was in New York last week to take part in the UN General Assembly 2014 session, Pew reports that the ocean conservation organization Ocean Elders awarded him the 2014 Leadership Award for his work to protect the waters surrounding his nation. Pew Charitable Trusts is working with Palau and several other countries and territories to establish marine parks around the world.
Horstmeyer says the United Kingdom is considering creating the world’s largest marine reserve surrounding the Pitcairn Islands, which are still inhabited by descendants of the infamous HMS Bounty.