In a single executive action, the United States more than quadrupled the size of one of the world’s most ecologically rich ocean sanctuaries — turning a remote stretch of the North Pacific into the largest marine protected area on Earth.
Key facts
- Papahānaumokuākea monument expansion: President Barack Obama expanded the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument from 139,797 square miles to 582,578 square miles, making it the largest marine protected area on the planet.
- Marine species protection: The expanded monument provides critical protections for more than 7,000 marine species, including federally protected monk seals, Hawaiian sea turtles, humpback whales, and black coral — considered the longest-living marine species in the world.
- Commercial fishing ban: The protected zone extends a ban on commercial fishing from 50 miles to 200 miles around the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, covering an area nearly four times the size of California.
A monument already unlike any other
Papahānaumokuākea was first designated a marine national monument in 2006 C.E. by President George W. Bush. Even then, it was larger than all of the United States’ national parks combined — a vast, largely uninhabited arc of atolls, seamounts, and open ocean stretching northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands.
The 2016 C.E. expansion dwarfed the next-largest marine protected areas: the United Kingdom’s Pitcairn Islands marine reserve at 322,000 square miles and the Chagos Marine Reserve in the Indian Ocean at 247,000 square miles. The new Papahānaumokuākea would be nearly as large as Alaska.
Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who introduced the proposal in June 2016 C.E., called it “one of the most important actions an American president has ever taken for the health of the oceans.” He argued the expansion would replenish fish stocks, promote biodiversity, and give a greater voice to Native Hawaiians in managing the resource.
Why the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands matter
The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are not a typical stretch of ocean. They host some of the most intact coral reef ecosystems in the United States, along with breeding grounds for the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal — one of the rarest marine mammals on Earth. Laysan albatross, spinner dolphins, and more than a dozen species of sharks make their home here.
The remoteness of the area has helped preserve it. Most of the islands are uninhabited. No roads, no harbors, no lights at night. That isolation, combined with legal protection, creates conditions where ecosystems can function largely without human disruption.
Scientists have long argued that large, fully protected marine reserves are among the most effective tools for ocean conservation. Inside protected boundaries, fish populations can recover, coral can regenerate, and predator-prey relationships can stabilize. A healthy Papahānaumokuākea, researchers suggest, can act as a source population — sending larvae and juvenile fish outward into surrounding waters where fishing does occur.
Native Hawaiian voices at the center
The name Papahānaumokuākea comes from Native Hawaiian cosmology. Papahānaumoku is the earth mother; Wākea is the sky father. Together they are the progenitors of the Hawaiian Islands and, in Hawaiian tradition, of the Hawaiian people themselves.
That name was chosen deliberately when the monument was first established, and it carries real weight. Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, including members of the monument’s co-management structure, have long advocated for the area’s protection as both an ecological and a spiritual responsibility.
The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Global Ocean Legacy project, which helped build the coalition supporting the expansion, worked directly with Native Hawaiian communities, scientists, and local leaders. Matt Rand, the project’s director, described the announcement as “a big deal for the planet” — and expressed hope that it would inspire similar action globally.
Climate resilience as a driving argument
The expansion was framed not only as a conservation measure but as a climate adaptation strategy. The warming of ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, and increasing acidification all threaten coral reef ecosystems worldwide. Larger protected areas give ecosystems more room to respond — more habitat for species to shift as conditions change, and fewer additional stressors like fishing pressure layered on top of climate stress.
In 2016 C.E., coral bleaching events driven by El Niño and longer-term ocean warming had already devastated reefs across the Pacific. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had documented accelerating acidification in Hawaiian waters. Protecting a larger area was seen as buying time — and resilience — for an ecosystem under pressure.
Lasting impact
The Papahānaumokuākea expansion set a new global benchmark. Within months of the announcement, other governments pointed to it as a model and a challenge. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which held its World Conservation Congress in Honolulu in September 2016 C.E., used the moment to build momentum around the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 — a target now embedded in the Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by nearly 200 countries in 2022 C.E.
The monument also strengthened the case that co-management with Indigenous communities produces more durable protections. Native Hawaiian practitioners are formal partners in Papahānaumokuākea’s governance — a model increasingly recognized as both ethically sound and practically effective.
For the 7,000-plus species within its boundaries, the expansion meant a larger refuge: more space to recover, more room to move, and a better chance of surviving a century that will test marine life in ways no previous generation has faced.
Blindspots and limits
Protected area designations are only as strong as the enforcement behind them. Monitoring 582,578 square miles of remote ocean is genuinely difficult, and illegal fishing within large marine protected areas remains a documented problem globally. Some marine scientists have also noted that protection without addressing the root causes of ocean degradation — carbon emissions chief among them — can only do so much. A monument boundary does not stop warming water.
The expansion also faced opposition from some commercial fishing interests, who argued the ban on fishing in the expanded zone would harm Hawaii’s domestic fishing industry. Those concerns were not resolved by the designation, and the long-term economic tradeoffs between near-term fishing revenue and long-term ecosystem health remain genuinely contested in coastal communities.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Huffington Post — Obama to quadruple Hawaii monument
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Ghana establishes a marine protected area at Cape Three Points
- Uganda reintroduces rhinos to Kidepo Valley
- The Good News for Humankind archive on marine conservation
About this article
- 🤖 This article is AI-generated, based on a framework created by Peter Schulte.
- 🌍 It aims to be inspirational but clear-eyed, accurate, and evidence-based, and grounded in care for the Earth, peace and belonging for all, and human evolution.
- 💬 Leave your notes and suggestions in the comments below — I will do my best to review and implement where appropriate.
- ✉️ One verified piece of good news, one insight from Antihero Project, every weekday morning. Subscribe free.
