Native Hawaiians Call for World's Largest Marine Reserve

The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument “represents a responsibility to care for the place that is our beginning,” says Uncle Sol, a native Hawaiian with a special connection to this place. The 2006 designation of this highly protected ocean habitat in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands marked the beginning of a global movement that's led to the creation of more than a dozen other large-scale marine protected areas.

With the continued threat of global overfishing and the overall decline in the health of our seas, native Hawaiians are once again working with partners like The Pew Charitable Trusts' Global Ocean Legacy program to call for an expansion of the monument to the limits of the US Exclusive Economic Zone.

Enlarging Papahānaumokuākea would again position this area as the world’s largest marine reserve and ensure a healthy ecosystem for future generations and the species that depend on it. Expansion to the limits of the U.S. exclusive economic zone would make a remarkable contribution toward reaching critical global targets for ocean conservation.