Question

although tokelau is small, its decision to bar whaling in the territory it controls could have a huge impact. tokelau, home to approximately 1,500 people, is an isolated group of coral atolls that lies about 300 miles (about 482 kilometers) north of the island of samoa and roughly halfway between hawaii and new zealand. the territory is both a u.n. protectorate and a colony of new zealand. together, the three atolls encompass just five square miles (about 13.0 square kilometers) of land, but thanks to an international agreement called the law of the sea treaty (lost), tokelau possesses an exclusive economic zone (eez) that stretches across 116,000 square miles (about 300,438 square kilometers) of ocean waters. under lost, a country has the right to supervise and use natural resources on and under the sea floor of its eez. these zones extend 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from a countrys shoreline. tokelau has now outlawed whale hunting across its entire eez.
the designation of tokelaus eez as a whale sanctuary makes the territory the 11th such protected zone in the pacific ocean and adds a huge patch of sea to the marine area that is already off limits to whaling. together, these protected areas encompass some 7.2 million square miles (18.7 million square kilometers). other pacific nations and territories that have established whale sanctuaries within their eezs are australia, the cook islands, fiji, french polynesia, new caledonia, niue, papa new guinea, samoa, american samoa, and vanuatu. several other nations and territories have passed laws proscribing whaling in their eezs without declaring them official sanctuaries. they include new zealand, tonga, guam, and the northern marianas.
question 1
in the third paragraph, the author is primarily concerned with
a. telling how countries decide to create whale sanctuaries, where whales are protected from hunting, in their economic zones
b. analyzing which of the pacific nations and territories, among fiji, new caledonia, and samoa, have the largest whale sanctuaries
c. explaining why new zealand, tonga, guam, and the northern marianas have failed to declare their economic zones as official whale sanctuaries
d. describing the regions of the pacific ocean that have established whale sanctuaries within their economic zones

Explanation:

The third paragraph talks about Tokelau's EEZ being a whale sanctuary and then lists other Pacific nations and territories that have established whale sanctuaries (Australia, Cook Islands, etc.) or passed laws (New Zealand, Tonga, etc.). It's mainly describing the regions in the Pacific Ocean that have done so regarding whale sanctuaries.

Answer:

D. Describing the regions of the Pacific Ocean that have established whale sanctuaries within their economic zones