Bush to Expand Protections in Pacific?

President Bush says he wants to extend environmental protections to more of the Pacific Ocean. Bush said Friday he has asked the secretaries of the Interior, Commerce and Defense to identify additional areas that could be eligible for conservation.

Acknowledging that his administration is coming to an end, Bush said he is "sprinting to the finish. I mean, four months, you can actually get a lot done," he said.

Bush's comments came in a speech at the newly completed Sant Ocean Hall, scheduled to open to the public Saturday at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

In his comments Friday, Bush noted a life-size model of a right whale in the museum and said his administration has sought to help protect these endangered whales.

Indeed, the government has recommended a speed limit for commercial ships along the Atlantic coast, where collisions with the right whale threaten its existence. Only about 300 or 400 of the whales are left in the wild, and they migrate annually between their southeastern Atlantic breeding grounds to feeding areas off the Massachusetts coast, intersecting busy shipping lanes.