Kingman Reef, one of the Pacific Island marine areas that will receive new protection with the announcement of the world's largest marine park, by US President George Bush.

Credit: US National Parks and Wildlife Service

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WASHINGTON: Seeking to add an environmental boost to his legacy, President George W. Bush has announced the creation of the world's largest oceanic protected area in three parts of the Pacific.

In a bid to protect pristine coral reefs, rare fish and underwater volcanoes, Bush on Tuesday will mark out an area spanning some 195,000 square miles (505,000 sq km) in the Pacific Ocean as a trio of "marine national monuments," a spokesman said.

The areas include the Mariana Trench and northern Mariana Islands, the Rose Atoll in American Samoa and a chain of remote islands in the Central Pacific.

"The monuments will prohibit resource destruction or extraction, waste dumping, and commercial fishing," Bush said.

"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," he said.

Fishing will be barred or limited in many island areas while the 21 volcanoes and hydrothermal vents along the ocean floor beneath the Mariana Islands will also be protected.

"This is very, very big," James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Issues, told reporters on Monday ahead of Bush's announcement.

"In the last several years, it's on par with what we've been able to accomplish on land over the course of the last 100 years," he said, noting that the total area would "comprise the largest areas of ocean or ocean seabed set aside as marine protected areas in the world."

Collectively, the three areas will nudge out the Phoenix Island Protected Area, established in 2008 by the South Pacific nation of Kiribati as the world's largest protected area.

They also top Bush's last such announcement of a marine protection area in 2006 - 363,000 square kilometers of Pacific Ocean near the northwestern Hawaiian islands.

"Because these areas are pristine it gives us the best opportunity to understand effects in the ocean system," said Connaughton.

In some island areas, commercial fishing will be prohibited within 50 nautical miles while indigenous, recreational or research fishing will be permitted on a case-by-case basis, Connaughton said.

The move was praised by environmentalists, though details remained unclear on the degree of protection the areas will be afforded.

For scientists, the designations are "wonderful opportunities," said Roger McManus, vice president for global marine programs at the environmental group Conservation International.

"You don't get a better natural laboratory than we have in these places," he said.

Naming them as marine monuments "will do a lot to protect the coral reefs and also do a lot restore fish populations in the regions," McManus said.

However, he noted that many of the remote island areas have been previously named national wildife refuges and are "essentially no-take areas already" when it comes to fishing.

"The real key is what additional protection is provided above and beyond" by Bush's designation, he said.

Among the protected areas are the 1,500 mile-long (2,400-kilometer) Marianas Trench, including submerged active volcanoes and hydrothermal vents that run along the Marianas Island chain, an area that contains the deepest point on Earth.

The Pacific Remote Islands National Monument will comprise areas with coral reef ecosystems that are home to sharks, endangered turtles and millions of seabirds off seven areas: Kingman Reef; Palmyra Atoll; Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Islands; and Johnston Atoll; and Wake Island, the site of a World War II battle of Japanese and US forces.

Finally, the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument will be named around a small but dense coral reef known for its pink shade at Rose Atoll, a remote area around American Samoa.

Bush, an avid fisherman who leaves office this month to make way for president-elect Barack Obama, defended his administration against critics who say he has fallen short on envåironmental interests.

"The new steps I've announced today are the capstone of an eight-year commitment to strong environmental protection and conservation," Bush said, touting his efforts to stem air pollution, raise fuel efficiency standards for vehicles and invest in alternative energy sources.

"And while there's a lot more work to be done, we have done our part to leave behind a cleaner and healthier and better world for those who follow us on this Earth," Bush said.

"The waters around Rose Atoll also are home to giant clams, reef sharks, and very large parrot fish, and are a frequent location where you can find humpback and pilot whales and porpoises," Connaughton said.