The designation of the Atlantic Ocean’s first marine national monument, viewed by Gov. Charlie Baker as a move that will undermine MA fishermen, was described by President Barack Obama on Thursday as part of a strategy to both conserve natural resources and fight climate change.
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The president signed a proclamation designating the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument as protected shrines, resulting in a ban on commercial fishing, mining and drilling. The new national monument – which encompasses pristine underwater mountains and canyons – will provide critical protections for important ecological resources and marine species, including deep-sea coral and endangered whales and sea turtles.
“Obama said that he created the Atlantic Ocean’s first national monument Thursday, off the coast of MA, in part to protect the ecosystem from the effects of climate change”.
Obama said conservation efforts and obligations to combat climate change go hand in hand, because marine areas have many stressors: overfishing, ship traffic and pollution that ranges from visible plastic to invisible carbon.
“We find it deplorable that the government is kicking the domestic fishing fleet out of an area where they sustainably harvest healthy fish stocks”, the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association said in a statement.
SMITH: Senior administration officials say to mitigate the financial harm, they’re designating a smaller area than planned, and they’re giving lobster and red crab fisheries a seven-year grace period before they have to comply.
President Barack Obama said Friday that the violence in Libya “is just one more chapter in the change that is unfolding” across the Middle East and North Africa. The.
Commercial fishing will be phased out by 2023, but research and recreational fishing will be allowed. “And if we’re going to respond to the challenges globally, we have to care about the oceans and we have to understand the linkage to science and the linkage to climate change. Not the other way around”, the president said while adding he remains optimistic that those in the room could rise to the challenge because “these are problems we can solve”. “It’s a big blow to us”, said Jon Williams, president of the Atlantic Red Crab Company in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He said the investments the US and other nations were taking with new marine protected areas were vital for their economies and national security, but “also vital to our spirit”. “I know in a contest between us and the oceans, the oceans will win one way or another”.
Other environmental groups also applauded the designation, saying that it was as important to be good stewards of the ocean as it was the land and air.
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The move follows the administration’s decision to expand a massive reserve off the coast of Hawaii last month, as Obama looks to cement his environmental legacy before his tenure ends next year. Conversely, the monument’s canyons delve more than a mile below the ocean floor, and some are even deeper than the Grand Canyon.
