NOAA Fisheries will hold a virtual meeting on Wednesday, 16 November, to take comments on its plan to take a commercial fishing ban within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument area and incorporate that into Atlantic fishery management plans.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama first declared the nearly 5,000-square-mile region off the coast of Cape Cod a national monument in September 2016, making the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts the first such monument in the Atlantic. The move was opposed by fishermen, who filed a lawsuit to prevent the sanctuary that was ultimately unsuccessful.
However, four years after the monument designation, then-President Donald Trump removed the commercial fishing ban from the region in 2020. Just over a year later, on 8 October, 2021, President Joe Biden reversed course again, issuing yet another prohibition on commercial fishing, with American lobster and red crab fisheries exempted from the order until 15 September, 2023. The extension for American lobster and red crab is the same as what Obama initially ordered more than six years ago.
Federal officials declared the region as a monument because of the variety of deep-sea corals that live in the area as well as other endangered species.
Fishermen have claimed the decision to re-implement the commercial fishing ban will have a significant impact on swordfish and tuna fisheries in the North Atlantic region. Commercial fishermen and their supporters have said the monument designation runs counter to what Congress meant when it passed the Antiquities Act of 1906, arguing that the law is meant to protect natural resources on federal lands.
In 2016, the White House defended Obama’s decision, saying the need to protect public lands was well within the purview of the law and within the nation’s best interests.
In addition to Wednesday’s hearing, NOAA Fisheries will continue to take comments on the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts plan through the end of the month. Those comments can be sent to Fishery Management Specialist Laura Deighan via email.
The hearing will take place at 3 p.m. ET. Registration to attend is available at the NOAA Fisheries hearing website.
Despite the opposition, a study published in the scientific journal Nature found that the monument had little to no negative impact on squid/butterfish, mackerel, and tuna, and swordfish fisheries. The study, using catch reports and vessel tracking from before the ban, during the ban, and during the period the ban was lifted to determine that less than 1 percent of historical fishing grounds was lost. It also found catch totals did not appear to decline.
Photo courtesy of NOAA
