[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book II)]
[August 25, 2008]
[Pages 1159-1160]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Memorandum on Potential Marine Conservation Management Areas
August 25, 2008

Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Interior, 
the Secretary of Commerce, and the Chairman of the Council on 
Environmental Quality

Subject: Potential Marine Conservation Management Areas

    The Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality has advised me there are objects of historic and 
scientific interest in areas under the jurisdiction of the United States 
that may be appropriate for recognition, protection, or improved 
conservation and management under available authorities including by 
executive order or action under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.), Outer 
Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.), National Marine 
Sanctuaries Act (16 U.S.C. 1431, et seq.), or the Antiquities Act (16 
U.S.C. 431). These objects include:

      In the central Pacific, coral reefs, pinnacles, sea mounts, 
        islands and surrounding waters of Johnston Atoll, Howland, Baker 
        and Jarvis Islands, Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll, Wake Island, 
        and Rose Atoll that are isolated from population centers, mostly 
        uninhabited, and support endemic, depleted, migratory, 
        endangered and threatened species of fish, giant clams, crabs, 
        marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds, migratory shorebirds and 
        corals that are rapidly vanishing elsewhere in the world. The 
        reefs in these areas support unique localized upwelling-based 
        productivity, and two of the atolls are repositories of the 
        larvae of many marine species transported from the biodiversity-
        rich western Pacific.

      In the western Pacific Ocean, the marine waters around the 
        northern islands of Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
        Islands, including the Mariana Trench, that offer an exceptional 
        and diverse collection of marine life and habitat.

    Please provide to me your assessment, with relevant supporting 
information, including the views of the territorial and local 
governments and other interested parties, of the advisability of 
providing additional recognition, protection or improved conservation 
and management for objects of historic or scientific interest at these 
islands, coral reefs, geologic features and surrounding marine waters.
    Because Johnston Atoll and Wake Island have supported active 
military bases, and the other areas in the Pacific include areas of 
strategic importance to the United States, any measures your assessment 
recommends should not limit the Department of Defense from carrying out 
the mission of the various branches of the military stationed or 
operating within the Pacific and shall be consistent with freedom of 
navigation and international law. Please also consider cultural, 
environmental, economic, and multiple use implications of any measures 
you recommend, including the extent to which they are compatible, if 
applicable, with sustaining access to: (1) recreational and commercial 
fishing; (2) energy and

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mineral resources; and (3) opportunities for scientific study.
    With respect to each of these areas, your assessment should further 
identify whether there are opportunities and mechanisms for improved 
coordination of management among relevant agencies in accordance with 
Executive Order 13366 of December 17, 2004.

                                                          George W. Bush