President Barack Obama says he created the first monument in the Atlantic Ocean because the planet can not be protected without trying to safeguard the oceans.
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Senior White House officials, however, say there will be efforts to mitigate the expected financial impact, including a designated, albeit smaller, area for lobster and red crab companies. But they say it will also have a real impact on segments of the state’s commercial fishing industry.
Named the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, the “underwater Yellowstone” is the size of CT. As he prepares to complete his presidency, Obama has made frequent use of the authorities granted under the Antiquities Act, much to the delight of environmental groups but to the consternation of some lawmakers and industry groups.
The new national monument follows Obama’s recent expansion of the huge Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off Hawaii, and 20 more countries are to declare new reserves.
Supporters say protecting large swaths of ocean from human stresses can sustain important species and reduce the toll of climate change. But many in the fishing industry worry Obama’s actions will make it harder for them to earn a living.
“For many years, the recreational fishing community has worked to educate legislators and decision-makers on the social, conservation and economic benefits that recreational fishing provides to the nation”, Nussman said in a statement. In November 2015, Jon Williams, president of the Atlantic Red Crab Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts, wrote “livelihoods could be devastated” and insisted the waters around the monument are pristine and a model for conservation successes.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration held a public meeting on the proposed monument area in Providence, Rhode Island last September, and the White House said that administration officials “have visited the region repeatedly” since then to meet with local elected officials, commercial fishermen and other stakeholders.
Williams said his company will survive, but the changes created to address some of his concerns don’t change his mind about the merits of the monument. And having represented MA in the U.S. Senate for nearly 30 years, I am pleased that he has done so in a manner that respects and supports the unique environment and industry of MA and New England.
In a memo about the merits of the monument the Natural Resources Defense Council said that the canyons and seamounts within the monument are some of the least fished areas in the U.S. Atlantic, which is a key reason it was chosen for possible monument designation. The area is home to rare deep sea corals, endangered whales and some species found nowhere else on the planet. The White House expects twenty countries will designate 40 new marine protected areas, totaling almost 460,000 square miles of ocean; if you add the Papahānaumokuākea expansion, it’s more than 900,000 square miles of ocean protected in 2016.
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But Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of CT said the monument “will protect countless species and habitats from irreversible damage, advance key research, and support critical jobs that depend on healthy oceans”.
