A new letter written to U.S. President Joe Biden is urging him to avoid naming any new marine national monuments in the final months of his presidency.
The letter, signed by seafood companies, fishermen, government officials, and groups representing the seafood industry, calls on Biden to “resist all proposals” to either create a new marine national monument or expand an existing one inside the U.S.’s exclusive economic zone. Biden is currently in the “lame duck” period of his presidency, with just 56 days left before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Creating a marine monument in the final months of a presidency is not without precedent.
In September 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama designated a 5,000-square-mile area off the coast of New England as a national monument dubbed the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The designation as a monument banned all mining, drilling, and commercial fishing in the area and was the first U.S. monument of its type in the Atlantic Ocean.
Obama’s predecessor U.S. President George W. Bush also created marine monuments in the final months of his presidency. On 6 January 2009 – two weeks before his final term was finished – Bush established the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument in the Pacific Ocean.
All told, according to the letter ...
