Several Nations Announce Massive Marine Reserves in the Pacific
The U.S., Cook Islands, Bahamas, and Palau add to protected areas.
By the close of a two-day conference in Washington on the world's oceans, five nations had pledged to extend marine protections to cover more than a million square miles.
The United States, Palau, the Cook Islands, and the Bahamas unveiled their plans on Tuesday, following Kiribati's announcement Monday that commercial fishing would end in the vast marine reserves in its Pacific Ocean territory by the end of the year.
"We need to do more, but that is a great start," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the heads of state, nonprofit leaders, scientists, and industry representatives from 80 countries at the Our Ocean conference.
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama proposed an expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine
