[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 34 (Monday, September 1, 2008)]
[Pages 1156-1157]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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

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      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 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