Last week, President Barack Obama announced the creation of the largest marine reserve in the world in Hawaii, the Papahanaumo- kaukea Marine National Monument.

This announcement is monumental, as it marks a moment in time when the developed world has come to recognize what island nations have known for quite a while: that it is time to preserve our oceans for future generations.

But, it is just the beginning.

As a child of the ocean, and as the leader of an island nation, it has become clear to me that drastic action must be taken in order to revitalize the ocean. We are depleting our fish stocks at an ever-increasing rate, one rapidly reaching a point of no return.

Illegal and unreported fishing results in global losses of up to 26 million metric tons annually, worth up to $23.5 billion. According to many scientists, large predatory fish stocks have been reduced by as much as 90 percent since the Industrial Revolution.

To put this in perspective, 100 million sharks are killed each year in commercial fisheries, much of which is illegal.

Because of our inattention to our planet’s biggest resource, we find ourselves at a dangerous crossroad. That is why my country, which I like to refer to as a large ocean state, established one of the largest marine reserves in the world last October, which includes a no-take zone of 80 percent of our exclusive economic zone with the remaining marine resources reserved for our domestic fishing needs.

My people have a proud history of environmental stewardship. Over thousands of years, our elders refined traditional practices to preserve the extraordinary biodiversity of our waters. And just as Palauans have always understood the centrality of oceans, so, too, have our brothers and sisters across the Pacific. Pacific islands have been global conservation leaders, and I am proud of what we have accomplished.

Our island nations are simply listening to what science is telling us: Large marine protected areas are critical to allow marine biodiversity to recover and fish stocks to rebound, which has great spill-over benefits for the whole region. Marine reserves bring oceans back to life, making them more resilient to climate change.

That is why the Pacific islands championed the dedicated Oceans and Seas Sustainable Development Goal adopted last year to anchor oceans at the center of the international framework on sustainable development. This will help protect the well-being of the billions of people who depend on the sea for food security and livelihoods.

Today, I can say with pride that the small islands of this world have started a tidal wave of marine protection activity. New marine protected areas have been established from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean to the North Atlantic.

Palau, Kiribati, Cook Islands, New Caledonia, Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Seychelles, Chile, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States have established or proposed major marine protected areas — all this in just the last two years. The wind is truly rising at our back. But our journey toward a sustainable future has just begun.

This week, 180 governments are gathered for the world’s largest conservation event, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, to set the global agenda for our oceans — and the stakes are very high. Up for a vote is a motion to protect 30 percent of our oceans in marine reserves by 2030.

We must pass this resolution and immediately begin to enact more marine reserves in order to take our momentum to a level where rehabilitation of our marine resources will truly be possible.

The growing mandate from our citizens, our governments, our large countries and our small countries is merely a reflection of a planetary need, a growing knowledge that what we protect today, we have for our children tomorrow.

Oceans brought life to our planet. Our destinies are intertwined. If we lose the oceans, we all lose.