NW Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve

Steve Gittings Steve.Gittings at noaa.gov
Tue Dec 5 10:01:17 EST 2000


I might encourage a bit of caution on interpreting or conveying these numbers.  The
initial definition for "coral reef habitat", used for purposes of defining the types
of habitat being protected in this Reserve, was all areas less than 100 fathoms.
Perhaps better terms might have been "coral community habitat" or "potential coral
community habitat" or "reef coral habitat" or even "coral habitat."  In any case,
what is clear is that there is an urgent need to conduct the work necessary to
characterize what habitats are protected and where they are.  For more information,
the website, which may be changed as well to clarify definitions, is
http://hawaiireef.noaa.gov/

SG


GJ Gast wrote:

> > Coral List - Today's announcement and additional information on the new
> > Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve is
> > available at the web sites listed below.  In addition, Jim Hendee's email
> > incorrectly stated the size of the Reserve as 3.5 million acres.  The Reserve is
> > approximately 84 million acres, of which approximately 4% or 3.3 million acres
> > is "coral reef habitats".  The NWHI Reserve is the largest protected area
> > established in U.S. history.  Other information on size of the NWHI Coral Reef
> > Reserve:
> >
> > Approximate Area of the Reserve:
> > 131,800 square statute miles
> > 99,500 square nautical miles
> > 341,360 sq. kilometers
>
> Some comparisions to other parts of the world (x1000 square km):
> UK 244, Norway 328, West Germany 357
> Oman 300, Irak 434
> Congo 342, Zimbabwe 390
> Vietnam 329, Japan 377
> Equador 270, Paraguay 406
> New Zealand 268, Papua New Guinea 463
>
> Cheers, GJ
> ===============================================
> Dr. Gert Jan Gast
> Oostelijke Handelskade 31
> 1019BL Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
> Phone int 31 (0)20 4198607
> Email: gj at coralvision.org
> Else: gjgast at dds.nl (max 1 MB) or gjgast at freeler.nl



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