Obama's action roughly doubles the amount of marine protected areas worldwide

(NOAA)

President Barack Obama took a historic step yesterday by dramatically expanding an area of the Pacific Ocean that is off limits to fishing and other marine resources development, such as deep-sea mining.

By adding to the existing Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which was established under former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2009, Obama is expanding it to six times its existing size. This protects an additional 490,000 square miles of ocean waters in and around tropical islands and atolls, including Wake Island, Johnson Atoll, Jarvis Island and others in the south-central Pacific Ocean — one of the most pristine ocean environments under U.S. control. That's about the same size as the states of Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma combined.

LINK (via: Mashable)

The challenge will be keeping poachers out of the newly expanded Pacific marine reserve.

Other vast swathes of the Pacific also came under protection with the tiny island state of Kiribati due to announce that it will ban commercial fishing in one of the last great tuna grounds left in the world.

Kiribati’s no-take zone, around the Phoenix Islands protected area, will cover about 158,000 sq m, about the size of California. It comes into effect in January 2015.

LINK (via:Tech Times)