Yellow Tang near Maug Island in the Mariana Archipelago. Credit: NOAA, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Coral Reef Ecosystem Division, Robert Schroeder, photographer

Today, President Bush used his executive authority (granted under the Antiquities Act of 1906) to create three new marine national monuments in the Pacific, protecting more than 195,280 square miles of ocean.  As the president said, “the monuments will prohibit resource destruction or extraction, waste dumping, and commercial fishing. They will allow for research, free passage, and recreation — including the possibility of recreational fishing one day. For seabirds and marine life, they will be sanctuaries to grow and thrive. For scientists, they will be places to extend the frontiers of discovery. And for the American people, they will be places that honor our duty to be good stewards of the Almighty’s creation. “

The three areas are:

• Rose Atoll, a ring of pink-hued coral near American Samoa.
• The Marianas Marine National Monument, which encompasses the three northernmost islands in the northern Marianas chain, as well as the entire length and breadth of the Mariana Trench – the deepest rift of any on the ocean floor.
• The Pacific Remote Islands National Monument, an array of seven remote islands and atolls in the central Pacific.

More here on the specifics, from the White House.

Click here for lovely shots of the new monuments from the Washington Post.

President Bush also designated 140,000 square miles as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument around the Northwest Hawaiian Islands in 2006.  Combined, that’s a lot of ocean.

No precise word yet as to whether the Park Service will have any jurisdiction (Papahanaumokuakea, for instance, is managed by “the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in close coordination with the State of Hawaii” ), and whether we’ll be able to get any Pacific muffin stamps.