Saving Seafood

Commercial Fishing Prohibited in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument

December 17, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

President Biden revised the prohibited activities for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to include a prohibition on commercial fishing. All commercial fishing, other than for American lobster and Atlantic deep-sea red crab taken with fixed gear, is prohibited within the Monument as of October 8, 2021. American lobster and red crab fisheries are exempted from this prohibition until September 15, 2023, except where restricted under the New England Fishery Management Council’s Deep-Sea Coral Amendment (see below). These prohibitions reinstate the fishing prohibitions outlined in the original Monument proclamation signed by President Obama on September 15, 2016.

The Monument covers underwater seamounts (Bear, Mytilus, Physalia, and Retriever) and submerged canyons (Oceanographer, Gilbert, and Lydonia). You can find more information about the Monument on our Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument webpage and in the Federal Register.

Since the Monument was first designated in 2016, the New England Fishery Management Council developed and NOAA Fisheries approved and implemented (86 FR 33553, June 25, 2021) an Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment to its fishery management plans. This action prohibited the use of bottom-tending commercial fishing gear (with an exception for red crab pots) within the designated Georges Bank Deep-Sea Coral Protection Area, an area along the outer continental shelf in waters no shallower than 600 m to the Exclusive Economic Zone boundary. This action closed approximately 82 percent of the Monument to fishing earlier this year. This reinstated fishing prohibition applies to the remainder of the Monument area, shown in Figure 1. Lobster fishing with fixed gear may continue in the area of the reinstated Monument fishing restrictions (red hashed area in Figure 1) until September 15, 2023. Fishing for deep-sea red crab with fixed gear may continue throughout the entire area until September 15, 2023. Check out our Frequently Asked Questions about the Monument for more information.

 

NEW BEDFORD STANDARD-TIMES: Fishermen win a small victory

October 8, 2015 — Fishermen in the Northeast fisheries can celebrate a small victory in what President Obama didn’t do on Monday.

The president addressed, by video, attendees of the Our Ocean 2015 conference in Valparaiso, Chile, and announced two new marine sanctuaries, neither one of them off the coast of new England.

Commercial fishing advocates had been fighting to counter the message of environmental groups that were running a full-scale campaign to put Cashes Ledge and the New England Canyons and Seamounts on the list, along with the two announced by the president in Maryland and Lake Michigan.

New England fishermen looked at the 6,000 square miles under consideration off the coast and saw the next strategic step toward pushing them off the ocean.

The valuable cold-water kelp forests of Cashes Ledge and the coral fields in the five canyons and four seamounts are worthy of protection, but they are already off limits to fishermen.

Fishing advocates’ concern of “policy creep” can’t be dismissed as paranoia. The steady negative impact of regulation on the fishing industry is well-documented in reports on the health of the industry, and the use of various regulatory tools has left the industry reeling, wondering where the next threat will come from.

Read the full editorial from the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Letter from Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — September 24, 2015 — Gloucester, Mass. Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken has written to top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in opposition to a recent proposal to designate Cashes Ledge, three deep sea canyons and four seamounts off the Atlantic Coast as national monuments. Gloucester, one of nation’s oldest fishing ports, is also noted for its relation to New England’s historic groundfish fishery.

Read the letter from Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken

 

Massachusetts: Gloucester joins fight against marine monument plan

September 18, 2015 — The City of Gloucester has joined fishing stakeholders opposing conservationist efforts to permanently restrict fishing access to Cashes Ledge and an area south of Georges Bank that includes three deep canyons and four seamounts to create the Atlantic seaboard’s first marine national monument.

In her letter read into the record Tuesday night at a NOAA-hosted town meeting in Providence to discuss the issue, Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken stated the city’s objections to designate the deep sea canyons and seamounts — and Cashes Ledge — as a national monument.

“We have learned over the years to take a balanced perspective on issues, to make sure to have researched all the facts, and to include the public in our decisions,” Romeo Theken wrote. “It is from this perspective that I write in opposition to the Conservation Law Foundation-organized proposal for a national monument.”

Romeo Theken, as many other fishing stakeholders, decried the initiative by the CLF, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pew Charitable Trusts — which are imploring President Obama to use the federal Antiquities Act to unilaterally create the national monument —- as a blatant end-run around the existing fisheries management system and wholly unnecessary given the protections already in place.

“This CLF request undermines the democratic process established for fisheries management and replaces science with pure politics,” Romeo Theken wrote.

Romeo Theken’s letter parallels much of the opposition generated by the national monument proposal for an area that is about 100 miles southeast of Cape Cod and is home to some of the true wonders of the ocean, including seamounts and canyons that respectively rise and plunge thousands of feet from the ocean floor.

It also objected to a similar protective designation for Cashes Ledge, which sits about 80 miles east of Cape Ann.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Seeking Input on deep sea canyon and seamount protection

September 16, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA invites your input on possible permanent protections for three deep sea canyons — Oceanographer, Gilbert, and Lydonia — and four seamounts off of New England’s coast. Deep sea canyons, which plunge to depths greater than 7,000 feet, and sea mounts, which rise thousands of feet above the sea floor, create unique habitats supporting tremendous biodiversity and fragile ecosystems that are home to corals, fish, marine mammals, turtles, and more.

To ensure that we protect these unique places for future generations while recognizing the importance of sustainable ocean-based economies, we are seeking input from all interested parties in the region. 

Please send comments as soon as possible to atlanticconservation@noaa.gov 

Questions? Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, at 978-281-9103 or Allison.Ferreira@noaa.gov

Credit: NOAA