HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

The Republic of the Marshall Islands is now home to the world’s largest shark sanctuary. The Nitijela, the Marshallese parliament, unanimously passed legislation last week  that ends commercial fishing of sharks in all 1,990,530 square kilometers (768,547 square miles) of the central Pacific country’s waters, an ocean area four times the landmass of California.

President Obama signed an Executive Order establishing a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes on July 19, 2010. That Executive Order adopts the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and directs Federal agencies to take the appropriate steps to implement them.

By designating these areas as national monuments, the Administration ensures that the marine environment will receive the highest level of environmental recognition and conservation. 

A citizen advisory council assisted the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in developing the Sanctuary management plan. This council made recommendations to NOAA on the preferred components of the plan. One of these components was the zoning action plan, which designated five individual zone types in which certain activities were restricted.