This is an area off the Atlantic coast of New England with three undersea canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon and five submerged mountains, home to rare deep sea coral and whales.
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The conference will emphasize the urgent need to combat illegal fishing, pollution from plastic debris, and the acidification of the ocean, which is destroying coral reefs and shellfish, said Catherine Novelli, the USA undersecretary for economic growth, energy, and the environment at the State Department.
The announcement comes as a conference on protecting the ocean began Thursday in Washington.
President Barack Obama speaks at the Our Ocean, One Future conference at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016.
US President Barack Obama on Thursday designated the country’s first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean that aims to protect fragile deep-sea ecosystems off the coast of New England, a region famous for its fishing industry.
Thanks in part to the strong example set by President Obama and the United States, more than twenty countries attending this week’s Our Ocean Conference will announce the creation of 40 significant new marine protected areas, totaling almost 460,000 square miles of ocean.
Last month, Obama expanded the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Pacific Ocean using the 1906 Antiquities Act, which allows him to act unilaterally.
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.
“The monument ultimately designated in the Atlantic was largely the result of a series of political compromises layered with a thin veneer of public outreach”, the organization wrote. Oil and gas exploration and drilling are immediately banned in the area, as well as most commercial fishing.
Situated at the edge of Georges Bank, a historically rich fishing ground, the monument consists of two sections.
“Dangerous changes in our climate, caused mainly by human activity; dead zones in our ocean, caused mainly by pollution that we create here on land; unsustainable fishing practices; unprotected marine areas, in which rare species and entire ecosystems are at risk – all those things are happening now”, the United States president said. They have 60 days to cease fishing in the waters, and lobster and crab fishermen have seven years to move.
“This is deplorable”, said Grant Moore, president of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, in describing the designation.
White House officials said the administration listened to industry’s concerns, and noted the monument is smaller than originally proposed and contains a transition period for companies. “We’re helping make the oceans more resilient to climate change”, he said.
Williams, owner of the Atlantic Red Crab Company in New Bedford, doesn’t know what his next steps will be.
“We’ve been fishing out there for 35 years”, Williams said.
More than 300,000 Americans asked the Obama administration to protect this area, and each voice counted in making this dream a reality. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Obama had gone with “more sensible boundary limits to the monument” in seeking to balance environmental goals with economic interests.
“I don’t believe we are harming [the corals]”, he said. “So it’s up to us to adapt, not the other way around”.
Deep sea coral, endangered whales, and sea turtles are just a few of the things the White House said will now be protected under the order signed by the President.
The protected area is roughly the size of CT and lies 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.
President Obama has placed more lands and waters into conservation than any other president in history, cementing his environmental legacy – and changing the National Wildlife Refuge System forever.
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NOAA will also be engaging with stakeholders in the region to discuss grant programs that may be relevant including Bycatch Reduction and Engineering Program, the Fisheries Innovation Fund, Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Grants, and the Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program.
