In case you haven't heard, this past June President Obama announced a new plan for creating the world's largest marine sanctuary, which would cover hundreds of thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean as well as protect species from illegal fishing and seafood fraud. To be specific, the plan would expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the central Pacific to nearly 728,000 square miles (previously 87,000 square miles). However, not everyone likes the initiative.

According to National Geographic, Obama has said, "I'm using my authority as President to protect some of our nation's most pristine monuments, just like we do on land. We know how fragile our blue planet can be... If we ignore these problems [of overfishing and pollution], we won't just be squandering one of humanity's greatest treasures, we'll be cutting off one of our major sources of food and economic growth," highlighting the need to preserve ocean waters.

However, local fishermen are opposed to the plan - this is because commercial fishing is prohibited, and they fear the local fishing industry will suffer economically. Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, stated, "No other country is restricting fishing in its own waters to this extent," conveying one of the reasons why she thinks the plan is unfair.

On the other hand, conservationists think that the expanded reserve would minimally impact the fishing industry, and claim that fishermen haul in very little tuna from lands placed on the reserve. Jack Kittinger, the director of Conservation International's Hawaii office, stated, "Even if those places are made off-limits, the fishermen won't lose that percent of their catch because they will be able to fish in other areas," highlighting his skepticism of the problems local fishermen would face.

Kittinger believes the fishing community is most concerned with the precedent the expansion of the monument would set. He commented further, "But there's a high benefit-to-cost ratio here; we stand to gain a lot and lose very little to the fishing industry."