For the 27th time since he took office, President Obama used the 1906 Antiquities Act Thursday to extend permanent protection to public lands from commercial activity and development. This time that land—4,913 square miles of it, about the size of Connecticut—is underwater.
Given the view of right-wing Republicans that the president is abusing his authority in designating monuments, there will no doubt be some grumbling about this one. I’ll return to that in moment.
Designated the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, the ecosystem is home to 73 unique kinds of corals, fin, right, sei and endangered sperm whales, tunas, sharks, dolphins, sea turtles, numerous seabirds, including puffins, and ravines deeper than the Grand Canyon. The monument’s four seamounts are the only ones in the U.S. Atlantic. The monument lies about 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod. It will be managed by the departments of Interior and Commerce.
The announcement of the new monument was made Thursday morning at the third annual “Our Oceans” conference. Some other nations also announced they are permanently preserving some marine environments.
The designation prohibits most commercial fishing, as well as undersea drilling and mining. Commercial red crab and lobster fisheries get seven years to phase out their activities within the monument, but all other commercial fisheries have 60 days to cease operations. The economic impact will be minor, according to White House officials, because only a relatively small number of fishing vessels now ply the area. Recreational fishing will still be permitted. Lee Crockett at the Pew Charitable Trusts writes:
In 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent a deep-sea submersible vehicle to probe the region and capture video of the abundance of marine life there.
On their missions to the area, researchers discovered rare species and explored a series of canyons and underwater mountains that rise as high as 7,000 feet from the seafloor—the only such formations in the U.S. Atlantic.
The protected area includes three canyons and four underwater mountains, where scientists have documented hundreds of species. Brilliant cold-water corals, some the size of small trees, form the foundation of deep-sea ecosystems, providing food, spawning habitat, and shelter for fish and other marine animals.