Kiribati creates world's largest marine reserve

By David Fogarty

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The Pacific island nation of Kiribati has created the world's largest protected marine reserve, a California-sized wilderness brimming with reefs, fish and birds, conservation groups said on Thursday.

The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, covering 410,500 square kilometers, is one of the planet's last intact coral archipelagos and is threatened by over-fishing and climate change, the groups say.

It lies near the equator about half way between Fiji and Hawaii.

"The creation of this amazing marine protected area by a small island nation represents a commitment of historic proportions," said Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International.

The U.S.-based group, along with the New England Aquarium, is helping the Kiribati government develop a management and funding plan for the largely uninhabited area.

Studies led by the U.S. aquarium have found more than 120 species of coral and 520 species of fish, some new to science.

The area also has some of the most important sea bird nesting sites in the Pacific, large fish populations and sea turtles, the aquarium and Conservation International say.

The protected zone is more than double the area Kiribati originally pledged to protect at a U.N. biodiversity conference in Brazil in 2006.