CHAIRMAN CONNAUGHTON: Yes, let me highlight a few. First, there’s still a lot we don’t know about these marine systems. The science assessment, even to the scientists, when you sit down with them, they are just bubbling with enthusiasm, because every time they go out looking they just find things that boggle their imagination — whether it’s the diversity of the resource, the balance of the resource, the nature of the — as we think about ocean warming or ocean acidification, the way these pristine resources, the resilience of these resources in the face of that, or the stress that they face — these are, as I indicated, the frontiers of science. And that’s what’s truly inspiring. So that’s one.

Two, as we think about things like deep sea — the deep sea, and what value it holds for us either as a place of exploration, or what value it holds for us as a place of providing and then meeting human needs, we have learned — we’re just tipping — touching the tip of what we can understand about those resources. So, for example, the minerals question that came up, there was a big concern that there would be mining in the middle of all these precious living marine resources. Well, as it happens, we’ve begun the assessment to show that those resources are in a very different place than where people thought they were. And that’s kind of important and interesting.

And then, one other point I would make, I want to go back to the frontier science point. These extreme environments — the fact that you have living resources in what are called chemosynthetic environments, rather than photosynthetic environments, you have living marine resources in these incredibly harsh environments — that begins to open the door to all kinds of new ways of thinking about life. And that also is going to help inform our understanding of the potential for life beyond Earth. And so we are opening new doors and chapters to that kind of awareness.

What else? It underscores the continued importance of taking the time to consult, especially with local governments. And it underscores the continued importance of trying to knit together our management strategies so you can come up with an ecosystem-based approach to what we’re doing, rather than what we called the silo-based approach, the issue-by-issue approach that typically occurs especially in the marine environment. And so this underscores the value of those consultations and the value of coming up with joint strategies for dealing with them.

And by the way, and it’s hard, it’s not easy. As I indicated, there were a lot of misperceptions. There were a lot of legitimate concerns that had to be addressed, and then a lot of challenges in trying to knit together different cultures even within the federal government over how to approach thinking about some of these resources — and by the way, even within some several government agencies.

USGS thinks about things differently than the Fish and Wildlife Service does. NOAA Fisheries thinks about things a little bit differently than the Marine Sanctuary Program does. And they — because they approach their different management agendas through different lenses and different statutory authorities. So this is the challenge of our management time, is to find ways to effect better, more integrated ecosystem-based management of our resources.

Q: Thank you. And just a little trivia question, if I may. It’s — if I remember correctly, 195,000 square miles.

CHAIRMAN CONNAUGHTON: Yes.

Q: Up to this point, let’s say, up to the point of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands Monument, how much had been set aside by this administration, versus what we’ve seen since? Is there sort of a ballpark number?

CHAIRMAN CONNAUGHTON: In the marine environment?

Q: Yes.

CHAIRMAN CONNAUGHTON: So it was Papahanau, which was about 140,000. We did the Davidson Seamount, which accounted for another 500 I think — no, 700 square miles. And then we’ve done some expansions of some of the sanctuaries, or looking at expansions of some of the sanctuaries. And then for example, just — imminent is going to be a decision to create eight new marine protected areas under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishing Act along the Southeast coast, and that’s one the fishing community has developed for the sake of restoring the fish stocks.

So up until now we’d been I think probably up in the 200,000 range, and now we’re going to be well in excess of 330,000 miles. If you want to put that in perspective, the entire marine sanctuary system is 19,000 square miles, and the — I guess the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is 130,000 square miles. And in our marine conservation areas, we have been able to come up with strategies that afford the highest levels of protection, as well. So this is very, very big. You know, basically, 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.

I can take one more question.

Q: Hi, thanks, Chairman Connaughton. I have one specific question and one question about — more general question. Specifically, are any of these areas like no-take marine reserves like Papahanaumokuakea? And then, I know this is something you’ve worked on a lot. What does it mean for you to be able to see this before President Bush leaves office and how do you think this adds to the President’s ocean legacy?

CHAIRMAN CONNAUGHTON: So, first, the management requirements for all of these areas is in the same ballpark as what we did with Papahanaumokuakea. You have to tailor some of those things to deal with your unique circumstances. So, for example, in Papahanau at Midway we have a special access area that allows for a lot of interaction with resource. Here it’s a little bit different. Here we thought it made sense to put in place this process for the consideration of non-commercial fishing activities. And so we’ll see how that works out.

And so there’s an answer. It’s a little bit different. But in terms of no-take, I mean, they’re all no-take. You can’t destroy the resource. You can’t extract from it, except under very carefully managed — for example, for research purposes. So they’re on par with the highest levels of protection afford anywhere in the world. And so it’s a great next step.

In terms of the broader piece — and I thank you for asking the question, because there’s a strong bipartisan consensus in favor of more effective ocean management and marine conservation. And that manifested itself in the work we’ve done in the last eight years with the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, several supporting efforts by other groups to have a comprehensive approach to the marine environment and to sort of breathe new life into this idea of more integrated marine management.

And so these two very large efforts at marine conservation, with the Hawaii monument and these three new monuments, are just a piece of the broader agenda that includes ending over-fishing in America by 2010; it includes a substantially reinvigorated ocean research agenda, backed up, we hope, when we get beyond continuing resolutions, by more resources; and it also includes taking a look at how we do energy development, how we do minerals development, and how we use the highways of the seas in ways that are effective and complementary and consonant with our desire to conserve our resources.

So it’s been richly rewarding to be able to deal with the subject in its full scale and scope, and all the way down to the work we’ve done with the fishing communities who have really stepped to the forefront on their own conservation agenda and are playing a leadership role and doing things like game fish status for red snapper and red drum. We’ve gotten — the recreational community is strongly supporting now of the keeping tabs on their catch so we can actually do a better job with data of managing the resource to cruise ships paying a lot more attention, and the Navy paying a lot more attention to how it’s managing these floating cities that they run.

So it’s been — it’s just great, not just for America, but we are actually setting the mark for the world with respect to effective marine management.

So with that, I will thank you. Kristy Hellmer in my office has video and has maps and has pictures, so any of you who are looking for that kind of visuals or media, give Kristy a call and she’ll provide that to you.

Thank you all very much, as we look — if you have specific areas to follow up, give Kristy a call and we’ll see if we can meet your needs. Thanks.

END 4:57 P.M. EST

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