Sunday, June 7, 2020

ADMINISTRATION OPENS YET ANOTHER SENSITIVE OCEAN AREA TO COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY



The closed areas in the Gulf of Mexico included the only areas in the western hemisphere were Atlantic bluefin tuna were known, with certainty, to spawn.

In opening the areas, NMFS argued that regulations put in place in 2015 were adequate to control bluefin bycatch, and that in an effort to reduce the “regulatory burden” and give longliners a greater opportunity to fill their entire swordfish quota, the closed areas should be abolished—although NMFS reserved the right to close them again should bycatch get too high.

NMFS’ justification for the reopening contradicted statements that the agency itself made when the closed areas were created, which suggested both that they were needed to protect bluefin and that they wouldn’t significantly impact longliners’ swordfish catch.  It's most recent statements were not supported by any substantial body of verifiable data.  Yet the areas were opened anyway.


The area in question is known as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which was created by President Barak Obama on September 15, 2016.  In creating the monument, President Obama noted,

“In these waters, the Atlantic Ocean meets the continental shelf in a region of great abundance and diversity as well as stark geological relief.  The waters are home to many species of deep-sea corals, fish, whales and other marine mammals.  Three submarine canyons and, beyond them, four undersea mountains lie in the waters approximately 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod.  This area (the canyon and seamount area) includes unique ecological resources that have long been the subject of scientific interest.
“…The canyons start at the edge of the geological continental shelf and drop from 200 meters to thousands of meters deep.  The seamounts are farther off shore, at the start of the New England Seamount chain, rising thousands of meters from the ocean floor.  These canyons and seamounts are home to at least 54 species of deep-sea corals, which live at depths of at least 3,900 meters below the sea surface.  The corals, together with other structure-forming fauna such as sponges and anemones, create a foundation for vibrant deep-sea ecosystems, providing food, spawning habitat, and shelter for an array of fish and invertebrate species.  These habitats are extremely sensitive to disturbance from extractive activities.
“…[In the canyons,] major oceanographic features, such as currents, temperature gradients, eddies, and fronts, occur on a large scale and influence the distribution patterns of such highly migratory oceanic species as tuna, billfish, and sharks.  They provide feeding grounds for these and many other marine species.
“Toothed whales, such as the endangered sperm whale, and many species of beaked whales are strongly attracted to the environments created by submarine canyons.  Surveys of the area show significantly higher numbers of beaked whales present in canyon regions than in non-canyon shelf-edge regions…
“Geographically isolated from the continental platform, [the] seamounts support highly diverse ecological communities with deep-sea corals that are hundreds or thousands of years old and a wide array of other benthic marine organisms not found on the surrounding deep-sea floor.    They provide shelter from predators, increased food, nurseries, and feeding areas.  The New England seamounts have many rare and endemic species, several of which are new to science and are not known to live anywhere else on Earth…”
In other words, it’s not just about fish.  

The New England Canyons and Seamounts marine monument is a rare and special place, with ecosystems vulnerable to damage from human activity that, once destroyed, cannot be replaced, or found anywhere else in the world.

It’s a place that’s worth special protections.

And those protections don’t come at much of a cost.  5,000 square miles sounds like a big piece of ocean, but amounts to just 1.5 percent of all federal waters on the U.S. East Coast.  Located nearly 150 miles from the closest land, only the bigger trawlers, pelagic longliners and offshore lobster and crab boats are likely to fish it, and there is no evidence that such long-ranged operations suffered any significant financial harm as a result of the monument’s creation.

Nonetheless, Trump has decided to reopen the monument to commercial fishing, saying that

“following further consideration of the nature of the objects identified in [President Obama’s proclamation creating the monument] and the protection of those objects already provided by relevant law, I find that appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put the objects of scientific and historic interest that the monument protects at risk…
“With respect to fish in particular, many of the fish species that [President Obama’s proclamation] identifies are highly migratory and not unique to the monument.  Some of the examples of fish species that [such proclamation] identifies are not of such significant scientific interest that they merit additional protection beyond that already provided by other law.  Moreover, the fish species described in [the proclamation] are subject to Federal protections under existing laws and agency management decisions.  For example, Magnuson-Stevens regulates commercial fishing to assure long-term biological and economic sustainability for our Nation’s marine fisheries, taking into account the protection of associated marine ecosystems…
“After further consideration of the nature of the objects identified in [President Obama’s proclamation] and the protection of those objects already provided by Magnuson-Stevens and other relevant law, I find that a prohibition on commercial fishing is not, at this time, necessary for the proper care and management of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, or the objects of historic or scientific interest therein…”
There is more than a little irony in Trump announcing, from a platform in Maine, that the provisions of Magnuson-Stevens were sufficient to protect the national monument, when that state’s groundfish, and the commercial fishery that once pursued them, has been devastated by Magnuson-Stevens’ inability to protect the fish stocks of the Gulf of Maine.    

It’s not that Magnuson-Stevens is a bad law—I am a strong MSA supporter—but the plain truth is that to work, Magnuson-Stevens requires the support of concerned and forward-looking regional fishery management councils, while the New England Fishery Management Council, which would have oversight of some of the marine monument’s fisheries, has historically been one of the most-backward looking, and arguably the most ineffective, regional fishery management council in the nation.

While it’s true that pelagic longlining for highly migratory species within the marine monument would cause no lasting harm to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts ecosystem, at least so long as no gear was lost and settled to the ocean floor, it’s also true that it would result in bycatch of and harm to protected species, which are not receiving adequate protection anywhere along the U.S. coast. 

Yet, while longlines might not cause long-term habitat damage, the fixed gear used by lobster and crab fishermen, as well as whatever bottom trawls might be deployed in the canyon region, can do long-lasting harm to deep-sea corals and other benthic communities, which grow so slowly that their lives of some can be measured in the thousands of years.  The lines that stretch from surface buoys to crab and lobster traps on the ocean bottom also pose an entanglement threat to the critically endangered right whale, which can be found within the marine monument.

And the saddest thing about the decision to allow commercial fishing in the national monument is that it is unlikely to do anyone, except for a few of the larger and better-capitalized fishing companies, much good at all.


“The President’s decision today to roll back the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument designation won’t improve the prospects for our fishermen a fraction as much as reconsidering the tariffs that have wiped out years of time, toil, and energy invested by our seafood industry in developing new markets around the globe…”

“President Trump spent much of his roundtable saying that he could fix trade policies that have hurt Maine fishermen with a stroke of a pen, but it is his failed trade policies that caused China to retaliate with a lobster tariff…This move will not provide economic benefits to the fishing industry at a time when markets have been lost, the global supply chain is in shambles, and boats are tied up at the dock.”

“…At a time when Maine fishermen are badly hurting, the President had an opportunity to acknowledge and address their very real and significant concerns—many of which are the direct result of the administration’s harmful policies.
“Rolling back a national monument 35 [sic] miles southeast of Cape Cod—one that is currently open to commercial fishing according to NOAA—is not going to help the vast majority of Maine fishermen feed their families.  It will not help them pay their mortgage or rent.  It will not support an industry that is struggling under the massive weight of an unprecedented pandemic and misguided Federal policies.
“What Maine fishermen need from this President is a better trade policy from his Administration, not misguided plans for retaliatory tariffs which have been shown to do more harm than good.  They also need more Federal financial support, as I requested months ago…”

“Marine monument designations have the potential to be counterproductive to achieving domestic fishery management goals.”

“We appreciate that he’s paying attention to New England fisheries.”

It’s likely that the courts will also have the final word with respect to Trump’s latest action.  onservation groups have already spoken out against it and have clearly stated their intent to sue. 


“Once again, President Trump is moving to strip protections for our nation’s public lands and waters and hand them over to industry for private profit.
“Those fragile, extraordinary ocean areas are full of thousand-year-old corals, endangered whales, and other precious marine life.  They belong to all Americans, and they are held in trust for future generations…
“We are prepared to sue the Trump Administration to protect these marine treasures from harm and exploitation by commercial fishing and other extractive industries.”

“As Earthjustice attorneys work in court to defend national monuments across the country, you are an important part of giving voice to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts.”
In that vein, I’ll close with comments from Oceana, another marine conservation group, which probably provide a foretaste of what we’ll see next.

“This assault on our oceans joins the administration’s almost-daily actions to dismantle environmental protections for our nation’s air, water, oceans, historic treasures and wildlife—and to shut down public participation in decisions by our federal government.  Another political attack on our environment will put the longevity of productive fisheries at stake.  Unless this action is reversed immediately Oceana will make sure that President Trump’s proclamation will not go unchecked.”



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