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7 things Americans can be grateful for on Thanksgiving

Despite being a tough year in some ways, there have also been numerous points of progress.

6. The US created the world鈥檚 second-largest protected marine area

Wyland/NOAA via AP
In this Jan. 7, 2012 photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a shark swims off the coast of Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Midway, now home to the largest colony of Laysan albatrosses on Earth, is on the northern edge of the recently expanded Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, now the world's biggest oceanic preserve.

In 2006, President George W. Bush created the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii, a 140,000 square mile sanctuary intended to protect the area鈥檚 , a quarter of which are only found in the Hawaiian Archipelago. And this year, President Obama expanded the underwater reserve by. With its expansion, Papahanaumokuakea is now one of the world鈥檚 largest marine reserves, , a protected zone of the Antarctic Ocean.

Along with his expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Monument, Mr. Obama designated the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, a 4,913 square mile protected area off the East Coast and the first marine reserve in the Atlantic Ocean.

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