Letter to President Biden Regarding Pacific Remote Islands National Marine Sanctuary Designation Process

May 21, 2024

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500

CC:

Mr. Richard W. Spinrad, Ph.D., Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator
The Honorable Gina Raimondo, United States Secretary of Commerce
The Honorable Brenda Mallory, Chair, White House Council on Environment Quality

Mr. John Podesta, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Designee
Ms. Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., Deputy Director for Climate and Environment, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Comments re: the Pacific Remote Islands National Marine Sanctuary Designation Process

Dear President Biden,

Patagonia is a U.S.-based outdoor apparel brand with a 50-year history of environmental activism that believes deeply in the urgent, shared responsibility to protect our natural resources. The future of our business, the outdoor recreation economy, and our planet relies on the health of wild places. On behalf of Patagonia, I thank you and the Biden administration for your many acts of leadership to achieve meaningful conservation on land and water.

Patagonia was particularly buoyed by the administration’s public commitments to protect 30 percent of ocean waters under American jurisdiction by 2030, including the administration’s work to designate a new national marine sanctuary protecting the waters around the Pacific Remote Islands. We are concerned, however, by the recent claim that the United States has already succeeded in protecting approximately one-third of its marine areas. It remains unclear how NOAA calculated this figure, unless they are including in this claim minimally protected marine areas that fail to meet high-integrity international standards including the Marine Protected Area Guide or those set by experts at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas, the United States appears to declare premature victory, setting a dangerous precedent for global 30x30 commitments. At a time when the State Department is correctly prodding other countries to ensure that “protected really means protected,” we are concerned that the United States’ approach here could set a bad example during a critical moment for conservation.

By contrast, the administration has a prime opportunity to fully protect the Pacific Remote Islands, which would unequivocally take the United States over the finish line on the 30 percent commitment. The Pacific Remote Islands are an important cultural seascape for Pacific Islanders and one of the last wild and healthy marine ecosystems in the world. Now is the time to fulfill our promise to protect this culturally, historically and ecologically significant area and act quickly to safeguard our fisheries and biodiversity.

Anything less than a strong sanctuary designation would only invite illegal, unregulated fishing from countries that don’t share our commitment to conservation. Achieving your conservation commitments on 30x30 through a robust Pacific Remote Islands National Marine Sanctuary designation is well within reach, and we urge you to take this opportunity to stand for high- integrity marine protected areas. We are excited to support that effort and look forward to continued partnership.

Sincerely,
Hans Cole, VP of Environmental Activism, Patagonia