Underwater Wonder: Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument
Nov. 14, 2006 — -- The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument is a water world that may be the last of its kind.
It teems with life above and below.
Millions of bird nests populate the islands, and some of the healthiest coral reefs on Earth, along with about 7,000 species of fish, live beneath the ocean waters.
"The diversity is absolutely endless, and so endless that we will see new species discovered for decades to come," said Jean-Michel Cousteau, president of the Ocean Futures Society.
Cousteau, his colleague Holly Lohuis, and their team spent five weeks exploring the region and agree with panelists that the islands deserve to be on the Seven New Wonders list.
"I mean, what a better place to set aside for future generations as a perfect example of what healthy reef ecosystems should look like?" Lohuis said.
In June, President Bush made the area a U.S. national monument, thereby creating the single largest marine conservation area in the world -- 100 miles wide and 1,200 miles long.
The road to picking the Northwest Hawaiian Islands as a wonder was a contentious journey. The panel first toyed with putting the entire U.S. National Park System on the list.
In the end, it came down to just one.
"It's the biggest chunk of coral reef in the world," said oceanographer Sylvia Earle. "Bigger than the Great Barrier Reef. It's just this great sweep of where even the fish are safe. What a concept!"
The Polynesians used these islands for centuries as a place of worship, and the remote island of Midway was critical to the United States' victory against Japan in World War II.
But it is the coral reefs that truly stand out as a miracle of nature and a model for marine ecosystems all over the world.
For more information about Cousteau's film "Voyage to Kure," click here.
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