Ordinary Americans will be able to nominate areas of the ocean off of U.S. land and parts of the Great Lakes to be considered as new national marine sanctuaries, the White House announced Tuesday.

"We have the opportunity to galvanize people to protect their local areas," said John Podesta, President Barack Obama's counselor on climate change and environmental affairs, in announcing the policy, which reinstates a process that had been discontinued in 1995.

Podesta said that helping designate specific sanctuaries makes marine conservation more concrete in the public mind than considering "the vast ocean."

Marine sanctuaries are like national parks in the water, with restrictions on activities like fishing and resource development to protect wildlife.

The new open nomination process will allow