Pew Applauds Expansion of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument - Seite 2

"President Obama's declaration is only the beginning. To create continuing success, we will need to work together to maintain and grow the partnerships that made the expansion possible in the first place," the senator added.

Through petitions, public meetings, and other events, Hawaiians expressed strong support for the expansion, particularly the Native community, which proposed the idea to the White House in January. To Native Hawaiians, Papahānaumokuākea is a place of honor, believed to be the root of ancestral connections to the gods and the site to which spirits return after death.

"Papahānaumokuākea is critically important to Native Hawaiian culture—it is our ancestral place, the birthplace of all life," said Sol Kahoʻohalahala, a seventh-generation Hawaiian from the island of Lanai and a member of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group. "The expanded monument will serve as a conservation, climate, and cultural refuge for my granddaughter and future generations."

Pew's Global Ocean Legacy campaign worked with Native Hawaiians, scientists, elected officials, community leaders, businesses, and the larger environmental community to build support for expansion. The efforts included an in-depth study of the biological and cultural significance of the area, town hall meetings, educational sessions, news conferences, and media interviews. More than 1 million people from Hawaii and beyond signed petitions or wrote letters to the White House and lawmakers. In June, some 1,500 scientists signed a letter to President Obama backing the expansion.

Although much of the region remains to be fully explored, Papahānaumokuākea is home to more than 7,000 species, a quarter of which are endemic, or found nowhere else on Earth; some have only recently been discovered. The area provides habitat for rare species such as threatened green turtles, endangered Hawaiian monk seals, and false killer whales, as well as 14 million seabirds representing 22 species. This year, scientists exploring these waters discovered a new type of ghostlike octopus they nicknamed Casper, as well as three new species of fish.