An area spanning over 35,000 square miles is now under the protection of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFAC), which voted to safeguard deep sea corals between New York and Virginia from trawl and dredge fishing on 10 June.
Reefs located hundreds of yards below sea surface support a vast array of fish species, and are easily destroyed by bottom-tending fishing techniques, according to scientists and conservationists. As such, the council has placed a ban on fishing gear that sinks 1,450 feet or deeper along and throughout the new designated zone. A smaller, similar protection zone was implemented for the same reason in South U.S. Atlantic waters alongside the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida back in 2010.
The latest vote has been met with praise from a number of NGOs, particularly by Oceana and the Pew Charitable Trust, both of which lobbied extensively for the change.
“The Mid-Atlantic Council should be applauded for taking action to protect fragile corals off the East Coast, from Long Island to North Carolina,” said Gib Brogan, fishery campaign manager for Oceana. “By conserving habitats that have high concentrations of corals, the Council is also helping to protect the larger ocean ecosystem where many commercially and recreationally valuable fish species make their homes.”
Peter Baker, who directs ocean conservation in the northeastern U.S. for The Pew Charitable Trusts, hopes that NOAA Fisheries will see the conservation effort through to its final phase by approving and implementing the council’s decision.
“That action would cement a conservation legacy for the Mid-Atlantic and, hopefully, inspire other U.S. fisheries officials to identify and protect the deep-sea corals in their regions,” Baker said.
Some fisheries won’t be affected by the ban, at least not immediately, such as the red crab fishery, which will be exempt from the regulations for at least two years thanks to an additional council vote. What’s more, such protections do not extend to oil/gas drilling or other industrial tasks conducted on the ocean floor, like laying cables, noted The New York Times.
The council’s vote had been postponed since February, when backlash from the fishing industry moved the council to hold a workshop in April to discuss the matter; scientists, activists and industry representatives were all in attendance during the springtime forum.
On 4 June, the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association (AOLA) postmarked a letter to the MAFAC voicing its continued concern regarding what a vote of this caliber could mean for certain fisheries: “As a representative of AOLA, I’m writing to express my deep concerns with the process being undertaken by the Council on this issue, which could lead to potential restrictions on the offshore lobster fishery. All of which would be developed within the last few weeks of a long regulatory process and outside of the public hearing process,” wrote David Borden, executive director of AOLA.
Read Borden’s letter in full via the window below.
