The Bush Administration announced today the creation of a vast nature preserve to protect a chain of remote islands in Hawaii. The new national monument would encompass 140,000 square miles of adjacent seas and would be larger than all national parks combined - an area that would stretch from Chicago to Florida.

Environmentalists are hailing the move as historic. The archipelago is home to 7000 marine species, at least a quarter of which are found nowhere else. Funds are being raised to aid local fisherman whose livelihood is being phased out as part of the marine protection effort. (Washington Post)