The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands - a coral-fringed swath of the Pacific - came under US environmental protection today, becoming the world's biggest protected marine reserve.
"We will protect a precious natural resource," President George W. Bush said at a White House ceremony where he declared a string of Pacific islands and submerged volcanoes a national monument.
"We will show our respect for the cultural and historical importance of this area. And we will create an important place for research and learning about how we can be good stewards of our oceans and our environment," Mr Bush said.
With a stroke of a pen, Mr Bush gave immediate protection to an area that stretches across 2,250 kilometres, covering nearly 362,600 sq km, edging out in size Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
The monument designation, Mr Bush's first, means a marine area greater in size than 46 of the 50 US states will be sheltered from overfishing, while allowing Hawaiians to use the area for traditional purposes.
The protected area starts about 260 km west of the inhabited Hawaiian island of Kauai and stretches nearly 1,900 km from Nihoa Island in the east to Kure Atoll in the west.
The area includes the world's most remote and relatively undisturbed coral reef ecosystem and supports more than 7,000 species, including more than 100 species unique to those islands. Important species include the green sea turtle and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, the only surviving marine mammal wholly dependent on coral reefs.
Even before Mr Bush made it official, ecology watchdog groups were quick to offer kudos, while acknowledging the Bush administration had not previously been noted for its environmental stewardship.
While largely uninhabited, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands include Midway, a strategic point in World War Two that has retained its airfield and could be a place for research, education and limited ecotourism.