It’s why Obama is building on those efforts by adding a marine national monument designation in the Atlantic Ocean.
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The 4,913-square-mile Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is the size of CT and has been called an “underwater Yellowstone” and “a deep sea Serengeti”.
The conference was attended by representatives from more than 20 countries that also announced the creation of their own protected marine areas.
“If we’re going to leave our children with oceans like the ones that were left to us, then we’re going to have to act and we’re going to have to act boldly”, Obama said at a State Department conference.
Today President Obama created the Atlantic Ocean’s first marine national monument, preserving almost 5,000 square miles of underwater mountains and canyons off the coast of New England.
As Pew Charitable Trusts – which applauded the announcement – notes, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument differs from other marine monument designations as it is located offshore from highly populated cities. “We’re helping make the oceans more resilient to climate change. and we’re doing it in a way that respects the fishing industry’s unique role in New England’s economy and history”. Red crab and lobster fisheries will be given seven years to cease operations in the area, which is about 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod. Recreational fishing will be allowed within the monument.
The sanctuaries, set to be unveiled at a high-level conference in Washington, will include the first such US monument in the Atlantic Ocean. The White House said the monument is home to protected species such as the sperm, fin and sei whales, and Kemp’s ridley turtles. Expeditions also have found species of coral found nowhere else on Earth.
Programs to protect coastal areas and rid the seas of plastic debris are among the many initiatives to be announced.
Britain said it would double the area of ocean under marine protection around its overseas territories to about 2.5 million square miles (6.5 million square km), an area greater than the landmass of India.
‘We can not truly protect our planet without protecting our oceans, ‘ Obama said.
“In New England, we have one of the most highly regulated fishing industries in the world, and we have had a steady decline in the amount of area available to fish, and it should be a last resort to take away more area as opposed to trying to carefully draw the lines of this monument area”, Tarr told the News Service.
Earlier this month Obama traveled to Midway atoll in the Pacific to view the expanded Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, which he quadrupled in size in August.
The various sanctuaries, unveiled at a high-level conference in Washington, limit commercial fishing, oil and gas drilling, and other human activities that affect ocean ecosystems.
The plans impose a permanent ban on commercial fishing in an additional one million square kilometres (386,100 square miles) of ocean, according to Britain’s Foreign Office. We want to personally thank everyone who has worked so hard to protect these important and attractive ocean treasures that belong to each and every one of us.
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Separately, a coalition launched a new satellite-based surveillance system Thursday called Global Fishing Watch, which is powered by Google and will scour the globe at all hours to spot those illegally plundering the oceans.
