NW Isles reserve could get $6.1M

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved $6.1 million yesterday for research and management of the newly proclaimed Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument.

Last month, President Bush established permanent protection for the 1,400-mile-long, 100-mile-wide section of the Hawaii archipelago by declaring it a national monument.

"Without the funding to back up the high ideals that the president stated in his proclamation last month, the protection afforded to our islands would be a 'paper tiger' -- long on words and short on teeth," U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said yesterday in a press release.

The appropriations bill advances to the full Senate for consideration.

The bill includes $3.8 million to support "science-based management practices" and research, and another $2.25 million for the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology to continue doing research in the area, according to Inouye.