July 11, 2016 — As the Obama administration enters its final months, federal officials are considering the use of the Antiquities Act to designate one or more new areas as marine monuments – a streamlined process permitting the president to create a permanent, protected zone without the review procedures required for other legal designations.
On the Atlantic seaboard, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says that it has been informed the administration may create a marine monument to protect deep-sea coral. To date, details of such a plan have not been made publicly available, but a group of scientists and conservationists have called for the administration to use its authority to designate several areas off Maine and Massachussetts for purposes of preserving high-biodiversity marine habitats. The Commission, along with industry representatives, has asked the president to leave the regulation of these areas to regional bodies like the Northeast Fisheries Management Council, which is already working on coral protection measures.
In California, a group of fishing industry representatives have released what they claim is a copy of an environmental proposal for a new set of areas for marine monument designation; they object to the what they describe as an opaque process, and to the prospect of having these areas withdrawn from fishing. “We’re trying to head it off before the president considers nominating these as national monuments,” said Mike Conroy of West Coast Fisheries Consultants, the group which released a copy of the proposal. The five page document has no authors listed, and its authenticity could not immediately be confirmed. The consultants group suggested in a letter to the Pacific Fishery Management Council that some commercial and recreational fishing interests felt that they were “kept in the dark” as the proposal took shape. “We are very alarmed that this action is being promoted behind closed doors, without any involvement of those who will be most impacted,” the group wrote.