Park service considers isle site
Star-Bulletin staff
The National Park Service announced yesterday it is considering nominating the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument to the World Heritage List, which recognizes the world's most significant cultural and natural resources.
Papahanaumokuakea, covering 140,000 square miles on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, is home to endangered Hawaiian monk seals, threatened green sea turtles, 14 million seabirds and 7,000 species of marine animals -- a quarter of which are found nowhere else on Earth.
The park service will accept comments on whether to nominate Papahanaumokuakea, as well as any of the properties on a new U.S. World Heritage Tentative List, until March 28.
Comments should be mailed to Jonathan Putnam, Office of International Affairs, National Park Service, 1201 Eye St. NW (0050), Washington, DC 20005; or e-mailed to jonathan_putnam@nps.gov.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was designated the state's only World Heritage site in 1987.