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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 1:01 p.m., Thursday, March 1, 2007

First Lady Laura Bush today touring Midway Atoll area

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer

First Lady Laura Bush's Air Force jet arrived at Midway Atoll overnight and Mrs. Bush was scheduled to spend the day today touring two of the atoll's islands.

She was traveling with several high-ranking federal officials, including Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton.

This evening, her party is to fly from Midway's airport to Honolulu, where she and Gov. Linda Lingle tomorrow are to announce the new Hawaiian name for what's now known as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument.

The First Lady has been interested in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for some time. She is credited for arranging a screening last April at the White House of Jean-Michel Cousteau's film, "Voyage to Kure," which deals with the natural history of the 1,200-mile chain of islands that form the western end of the Hawaiian archipelago. That screening is believed to have led to President George Bush's declaration in June of the region as a marine national monument.

This is her first visit to the area. The monument covers 140,000 square miles of ocean and coral reef, as well as 10 island, atoll or emergent reef structures.

Midway is both a central place in the history of World War II, and the Battle of Midway is widely viewed as a turning point in the war in the Pacific. In addition to its military history, Midway and the other islands of the archipelago are important for their amazing array of marine and birdlife.

The First Lady was to tour both Eastern Island and Sand Island at Midway, where hundreds of thousands of seabirds nest.

In traveling by boat between the islands, she is likely to see the lagoon's resident pod of dolphins, and some of the giant ulua that are among the atoll's top marine predators.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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