President Obama’s plan to designate almost 5,000 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Cod a national monument – effectively barring it from commercial fishing by 2023 – is being praised by environmentalists and condemned by commercial fishers. “Throughout New England, the maritime trades, and especially fishing, have supported a vibrant way of life, with deep cultural roots and a strong connection to the health of the ocean and the bounty it provides”, the proclamation reads.
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The conference will emphasize the urgent need to combat illegal fishing, pollution and the acidification of the ocean, which is destroying coral reefs and shellfish, said Catherine Novelli, the us under secretary for economic growth, energy, and the environment at the State Department. Obama announced last month the expansion of an ocean monument surrounding Hawaii that made it the largest protected marine area in the world.
According to the AP, the congressional delegation from CT initially recommended designating more than 6,000 square miles of the Atlantic for the monument, but Democratic Sen.
With today’s announcement, the president has created 25 national monuments and protected more than 265 million acres of land and water, more than any other president – including Teddy Roosevelt, the chief architect of the law that allows the executive branch to safeguard treasured natural and historic areas against development and destruction.
Sensing that Obama would announce the monument soon, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob BishopRob BishopObama to create national monument off MA coast Overnight Energy: Lawmakers kick off energy bill talks House panel votes to weaken Obama’s coal moratorium MORE (R-Utah) slammed the proposal Wednesday in an op-ed piece for The Hill.
“We’ve been fishing out there for 35 years”. She also said the ocean has absorbed 90 percent of the additional heat in the Earth’s system since the 1970s, leading to the bleaching of coral, rising sea levels and stresses on marine ecosystems. It’s happening in America”, Obama told the audience at the State Department.”I know that in a contest between us and the ocean, the ocean will win one way or another, so it’s us that has to adapt. “It’s a big blow to us”, said Jon Williams, president of the Atlantic Red Crab Company in New Bedford, Massachusetts. “It’s threatened by overfishing, by pollution, by acidification”, Novelli said. In a statement earlier this week it warned that the Monument designation will end four decades of collaborative fisheries management through the 1976 Magnuson Stevens Act, replacing it with one-sided interventions that will have damaging consequences across the industry.
The creatures who populate the protected area range from unique types of coral to several species of mammals, including sperm, fin, and sei whales.
The declaration nonetheless means most commercial fishing will soon be banned from the waters within the monument.
Bob Vanasse, spokesman for the National Coalition for Fishing Communities, told NPR that the monument would do serious damage to the region’s fishing industry.
Witman is one of the scientists who co-signed the proposal and co-authored studies supporting the benefits of such marine protections.
“We can not truly protect our planet without protecting our oceans”, he said.
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“The more of those threats that we eliminate through conservation, the more resilient those ecosystems will be to the consequences of climate change”.
