Case Praises President Bush's Designation of Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as National Monument

Case Praises President Bush's Designation of Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as National Monument

He Calls It The Most Significant Act In Marine Resource Protection In Our Nation's History

U.S. Congressman Ed Case (HI-2nd) made the following statement today following President Bush's designation of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as our nation's largest national monument and most protected marine resource:

"Like all others who care passionately about our earth's oceans and about the special world of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, I am overwhelmed and overjoyed at President Bush's designation today of the NWHI as a national monument.

"Anyone who knows the NWHI knows how truly unique and relatively intact, yet how vulnerable and endangered, it is. And we have known as well what an incredible opportunity and obligation we have had to seek the maximum level of permanent protection so that this world can first survive and then truly blossom again, as it was before mankind arrived and as it can and should be for all time.

"The President's action today implements administratively virtually all of my bill, H.R. 2365, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Marine Refuge Act of 2005, and I and all who worked on that effort and on the broader endeavor to afford the NWHI full permanent protection are truly grateful. His is a spectacular action, which justly earns the distinction of the most significant single action in marine resource protection in our country's history.

"We now move on together to implementation of fair fishing permittee buyouts and other details. But for today, it is time to give thanks that something so right to do was done right."

Case's congressional district encompasses the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. He introduced H.R. 2365 in May 2005 when he became concerned that the administrative reserve-to-sanctuary process was off-track and would not result in maximum permanent protection for the NWHI. He met with administration officials, including NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher and Council for Environmental Quality Chair James Connaughton, and wrote the President, to urge support for his bill or its administrative equivalent. He visited the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for six days in August 2005. In the U.S. House, he is a member of the Oceans Caucus and has cosponsored and advocated for various proposals to enhance protection of our country's and world's marine resources.

http://wwwc.house.gov/case/press_releases/2006/2006-24%20NWHI.html