The Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located off Saint John, Virgin Islands.
The clear waters surrounding Saint John support a diverse and complex system of coral reefs. The health of these reefs is closely tied to its component plants and animals as well as adjacent non-coral marine environments such as sandy bottoms, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests.
Seeking to provide greater protection to the sensitive coral reef resources, President Clinton established the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument on January 17, 2001. The monument includes 12,708 acres (51 km2) of federal submerged lands within the 3 mile (5 km) belt off Saint John, including Hurricane Hole and areas north and south of Saint John.
Read more about Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument: Ecosystem
Famous quotes containing the words virgin, islands, coral, reef, national and/or monument:
“If it were worth while to argue a paradox, one might maintain that nature regards the female as the essential, the male as the superfluity of her world. Perhaps the best starting-point for study of the Virgin would be a practical acquaintance with bees, and especially with queen bees.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (18381918)
“we are so many
and many within themselves
travel to far islands but no one
asks for their story....”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“The cities are the principal home and seat of the human group. They are the coral colony for Man, the collective being.”
—Alfred Döblin (18781957)
“As the bird trims her to the gale,
I trim myself to the storm of time,
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed in prime:
Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“It is to be lamented that the principle of national has had very little nourishment in our country, and, instead, has given place to sectional or state partialities. What more promising method for remedying this defect than by uniting American women of every state and every section in a common effort for our whole country.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (18001878)
“The monument of death will outlast the memory of the dead. The Pyramids do not tell the tale which was confided to them; the living fact commemorates itself.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)