The proposed Marine Protected Area (MPA) is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where the White House intends to extend an existing protected area, known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, where fishing and drilling would be banned over an area of about 2-million sq. km. The Pacific Remote Islands Area is controlled by the US and consists of seven scattered islands, atolls and reefs that lie between Hawaii and American Samoa. In the main uninhabited, the waters that surround these remote islands are home to a wide range of species including corals, seabirds, sharks and vegetation not found anywhere else in the world.