New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has announced that a new environmental sanctuary will be made, which will be one of the world’s largest ocean sanctuaries. Key made the announcement while he was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

The sanctuary is estimated to be almost the size of France. The massive-sized sanctuary will be made in the South Pacific Ocean. The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will cover 62,000 square kilometers area. It will be 50 times bigger than New Zealand’s current biggest national park in Fiordland.

Key said, “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will be one of the world’s largest and most significant fully-protected areas, preserving important habitats for seabirds, whales and dolphins, endangered marine turtles and thousands of species of fish and other marine life”.

The sanctuary will be having many exciting features including the world’s longest chain of submerged volcanoes and also the send deepest ocean trench, measuring around 10 kilometers deep. New Zealand authorities are having great hopes and believe that it will strengthen tourism, which will further lead to greater economic benefit than fisheries and mining natural resources.

A report by Wall Street Journal has unveiled that 7% of New Zealand's GDP comes from tourism with 3.02 million visitors in the last 12 months. World Wildlife Fund New Zealand chief executive Chris Howe has appreciated the announcement and said that it is a great thought by the government to protect the area from mining and fishing.

The new sanctuary joins the list of similar sanctuaries in other regions including the Coral Sea Marine Sanctuary and the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia.

“[The sanctuary] contains the world’s longest underwater volcanic arc and the second deepest ocean trench,” Mr. Key said in a statement.

“We congratulate the government for taking decisive action to protect this incredibly special area from mining and fishing. This decision puts New Zealand back at the forefront of marine protection on the global stage,” WWF-New Zealand’s Chief Executive Chris Howe said in a statement.