1 Consensus Statement from the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Ad-hoc Committee on the Socio-cultural and Economic Impacts of Expanding the PRIMNM

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) is mandated by law to promote common-sense and effective conservation of the U.S. Pacific Islands ’ marine fisheries ecosystems and has, in its nearly 40 year history, been a partner in a number of regional efforts that have restricted place-based fishing activities. However, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires the regional fishery management councils to balance the needs of the natural environment with society’s need to benefit from species important to commerce, recreation, and subsistence. This is conservation, a term often misinterpreted to mean the wholesale prohibition of use and enjoyment of nature (Norton, 1986). Preservation can be an easier endeavor than conservation, as it tends to require less effort; lines are drawn, prohibitions are enacted, and enforcement commences. Lock up the place and throw away the key. Conservation, in contrast is management-based, and as such requires public input, examination of cost-benefit, understanding the characteristics of alternative management strategies and, finally, selecting balanced options. It is in this context that the Ad-hoc Committee has evaluated the proposed expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM). If undertaken by President Obama under the assumed authority of the 1906 Antiquities Act, extending the current PRIMNM to the full extent of the Exclusive Economic Zone would increase its geographic footprint by almost 700,000 square miles. For comparison, the expansion area is superimposed over the Gulf of Mexico in Figure 1. Despite the fact that there are habitats under greater threat and of equal or more biological value to the Nation adjacent to the U.S. Mainland, it is doubtful that politicians in those states would willingly allow such a large area to be taken away from their fishermen and fishing communities