Palau in 2013

Palau in 2013

Area: 488 sq km (188 sq mi)
Population (2013 est.): 20,900
Capital: Melekeok (on Babelthuap)
Head of state and government: Presidents Johnson Toribiong and, from January 17, Tommy Remengesau

On Jan. 17, 2013, Tommy Remengesau took office for his third four-year term as president of Palau. Two months later he announced that Palau planned to become the first Pacific country to ban commercial fishing within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and that it would create the world’s largest marine sanctuary. Palau’s EEZ covered an area of almost 630,000 sq km (243,200 sq mi), or roughly the size of France. According to the country’s minister of natural resources, Palau earned about $5 million per year from the fishing industry, $4 million of which came from tuna fishing, mainly by Japanese and Taiwanese ships. Remengesau said, however, that according to the Asian Development Bank, the worth of the global tuna industry was $4 billion annually, of which Palau’s income was a small fraction. Further, he stated that the revenue from commercial fishing was negligible compared with that earned from tourism; the EEZ included diving and snorkeling sites that were popular with tourists. The announcement proposing the marine protection zone followed on Palau’s creation of the world’s first shark sanctuary in 2009; Remengesau said that he wanted the country to build on that beginning to become a “sea sanctuary that protects all marine wildlife.” Stuart Rintoul

On November 7 Super Typhoon Haiyan struck northern Palau with winds of up to 250 km/hr (155 mph). (See Special Report.) Many homes were destroyed, and power and water were temporarily lost on Kayangel, Babelthuap, and Koror.