By Naltalia Galbetti, Source: Ecorazzi

President Obama is revealing a plan on Tuesday to protect a great area of the Pacific Ocean, a move that will help preserve marine species by preventing anyone from fishing and exploring the ground for oil.

Environmentalists will be thrilled that the President is taking a serious step to help protect our oceans. However, it’s anticipated that the initiative will face a great deal of criticism from Republicans and will have to be modified before it goes into effect.

“When the president is besieged by the problems as this administration has faced, it’s tough to keep your focus on ocean policy,” said former defense secretary Leon E. Panetta, who co-founded the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative while in Congress almost ten years ago. “That’s the problem — you just can’t afford to put oceans on the back burner.”

Clearly, the administration agrees since the proposal would expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, an area already designated as protected during the Bush administration, from almost 87,000 square miles to nearly 782,000 square miles. The protection would end tuna fishing in the area and protect almost two dozen species of marine mammals, five types of threatened sea turtles, and a variety of sharks and other predatory fish species.

Read the rest at: Ecorazzi