Protected area for the marine monument of the Atlantic Ocean. (Image: Pew Charitable Trusts)

First 'marine monument' created in the Atlantic

UNITED STATES
Tuesday, September 27, 2016, 01:50 (GMT + 9)

The United States Government has created the Atlantic Ocean's first marine national monument, saying that the new protected area was a needed response to risky climate changes, ocean dead zones and unsustainable fishing practices.

The announcement of the reserve, called "The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument," was made surrounding the third annual Our Ocean Conference, a gathering of worldwide leaders on ocean issues, Democrat Live reported. 

With this decision, based on scientific expeditions to this region that have yielded new discoveries including species of coral found nowhere else on Earth and other rare fish and invertebrates, President Barack Obama sets a high global and local precedent: he has now protected more acres of lands and waters than any president in US history.

Marine National Monument status grants a particularly strong form of protection that will stop all commercial fishing within the monument's boundaries.

The move follows Obama administration's decision to expand a massive reserve off the coast of Hawaii last month, as the president looks to cement his environmental legacy before his tenure ends next year.

Scientists estimated there are more than 70 coral species and some 1,000 different marine species that inhabit this space.

Water temperatures in the area, about the size of the northeastern state of CT, are expected to get warmer much more quickly than the global average.

"Animals can live for many hundred, even several thousand years," stressed Dr Lance Morgan, president of the Marine Conservation Institute. One species of octopus has been known to brood its eggs for four years. Deep-sea coral formations, of which there are tens of thousands, can live for centuries, BBC News reported.

As well as deep-sea dwelling creatures, the newly protected mountains and canyons are hunting grounds for tunas, sharks, seabirds, dolphins, and endangered whales, like the rare North Atlantic right whale. Scientists hope all these animals, and the fish and krill they feed on, will grow in abundance with the help of the refuge.

A great deal of the research carried out in the Atlantic canyons was done by the Okeanos Explorer, whose work paved the way for the creation of the monument.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), seas off the coast of Maine are warming 99 per cent faster than global rates - for reasons scientists are still grappling with. Codfish populations have crashed in recent years as result of this shift.

Thus, NOAA hopes marine reserves, like the National Monument, will help to offset some of the negative impacts of these dramatic environmental changes.

Nevertheless, not everyone is pleased with the new national monument, as commercial fishing and trawling will be halted in the area, which is a significant blow for local fishermen and crab fishermen are particularly upset about monument, which they deem to be “a trophy for Obama and his legacy” at “the expense of all crab fishermen in New England."
 

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