Rose Atoll Abides

The monument protects 10,000 square miles of ocean from any commercial fishing or other extraction.
By the year 2050, it is expected that oceanic pH levels will be lower than they have been in the past 20 million years (Turley et al. 2006).
Every year, healthy corals and fish populations release billions of larvae into the ocean around Rose Atoll that replenish coral reefs and fish on the other islands of American Samoa.
And, every year since 2009, American Samoans on other inhabited islands over 80 miles away have continued to fish and collect marine life to sustain themselves.
This would not have been possible without the protection of Rose Atoll and repopulation of marine life.
What they are finding is that Rose Atoll, with no fishing or other extraction, is more stable and healthy than other islands where fishing and extraction are rampant.
Scientists think that this kind of protected environment with no extraction will be more resilient to the ill effects of climate change.
That, in reality, may ultimately depend on how severe the change is and how slowly and gently it arrives.
In the meantime, the world needs protected places like Rose Atoll and Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monuments to serve as natural benchmarks that show us how much things are really shifting in the rest of the ocean.
Reviewing the impact of increased atmospheric CO2 on oceanic pH and the marine ecosystem.