America announced the world's largest marine reserve

US President Barack Obama on June 17 announced plans to create a 2 million km ² marine protected area in the Pacific, the largest in the world.

According to National Geographic, the reserve includes the 322km US exclusive economic zone (consisting of about 7 uninhabited islands and atolls), extending to remote islands in the Pacific with a total area of about 782,000 square miles (more than 2 million square kilometers), which is more than twice the current largest reserve in Greenland.

A dolphin in the Midway Atoll reserve of the US National Wildlife Refuge - (Photo: National Geographic)

It also includes 241 undersea mountains with unique and fragile ecosystems, such as thousands of years old coral reefs, 22 species of mammals and 5 species of endemic sea turtles .

In a message to the US State Department's ocean conference held in Washington on June 16, President Obama said if ignoring issues such as ocean acidification, overfishing and pollution, we 'not only waste one of humanity's greatest treasures but also cut one of our main food sources and economic growth'.

Along with the announcement of a conservation area, Mr. Obama also made new commitments to combat illegal fishing of fish and seafood.

According to a recent study published in Marine Policy, up to 20-32% of seafood caught in the wild imported into the US is illegally caught, uncontrolled or stolen.