If Only the Greatest Sea Protector Had Followed the Law…

Passport’s Preeti Aroon reports that President Bush’s legacy might get an aquatic boost:

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U.S. President George W. Bush might be going down as the greatest protector of the seas ever. Later today, he is to announce the establishment of the “largest area of protected sea in the world.” Commercial fishing and mining will be largely prohibited in protected zones of the remote Pacific that include some of the most biologically diverse locations on Earth.

Some critics’ heads may be spinning between the administration’s countervailing ocean protection and the air pollution, but mine is still turned seaward. If Bush were so committed to protecting ocean life (not to mention securing more fishing and oil rights), why oh why did he not push harder for the United States to ratify the law of the sea convention? With what other agreement could you find President Bush tucked in with environmentalist and oil industrialist bedfellows?

(image from flickr user Eric M Martin under a Creative Commons license)