Tag Archives: National Marine Monument
John Sackton: Are the big NGOs winning the marine monument battle, but losing the war?
Coinciding with the opening of the Our Oceans conference in Washington, D.C., last week, President Obama announced a new 5,000-square-mile marine monument on the southeast corner of Georges Bank, encompassing three submarine canyons and some seamounts further off the continental shelf. The map of the monument closely hews to the proposed map put out by Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal in a letter to Obama in July. It follows a letter at the end of June from the six senators representing Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, along with a host of environmental non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. Read the op-ed here 10:04
Some New England Fishermen Consider A Fight Over Obama’s Monument. This Is Why They Should.
When the concept of the National Marine Monument arose, it was a surprise to many people, and the notion of it becoming reality seemed far fetched. This week we learned it was reality, and it was a stinging slap in the face. Rep Rob Bishop R-Utah tipped us of with an article titled, “Obama will leave his legacy at the expense of fishermen”, Sept, 14th, on the eve of the State Departments “Our Oceans” conference in Washington, DC. The confirmation the following day was bitter for many. There have been hundreds of articles written in the aftermath from the enviro friendly, to the revelations of the many fishermen that will be affected, including some that say the industry will consider a legal challenge, and challenge that designation they should! Meghan Lapp the Fisheries Liaison for Seafreeze Ltd. and is active in the process of fishery management, wrote an article that appeared in the Massachusetts Lobsterman’s Association Newsletter pre announcement of the designation. As with all good fishery articles, it is timeless and important to be seen by as many fishermen and the general public after the fact, because it lays out the basis as to why this should be a call to action to reverse this Obama Antiquities Act overreach that, quite possibly, may not be legal at all. Click here to read the article with a number of links at the bottom of the page. 17:58
Atlantic Marine Monument Was Created To “Appease Environmental Terrorists”
Media Matters decided to take a segment from Fox news where they interviewed Captain Keith Colburn in discussing the President Obama creating the first marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean. Gazing at other headlines at the post, it’s easy to understand Media Matters is another liberal leaning website that like to mock anyone that disagrees. Its not a bad interview, and I appreciate a well known fisherman speaking on the subject, bringing attention to the truth. Environmental Terrorism of the elitist ENGO is alive and well, thriving to close off more fishermen from their chosen occupation because its never enough. Video, read the rest here read the comments. The ignorance is astounding. 11:58
Roll the tape! Click on the image to watch.
Well, he did it, but we knew he would. Obama just destroyed more fishermen and supporting businesses
President Obama will designate a section of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Cod on Thursday as a national monument, banning commercial fishing in the area by 2023 in an effort to protect the region’s ecosystem. The move, which the president will formally announce at the Third Annual Our Ocean Conference in Washington, won praise Wednesday from environmental groups but drew condemnation from the fishing industry. White House officials emphasized the reduced size of the area of the national monument as a balance between between conservation and creating a “sustainable environment for the fishing industry going forward.” Read the story here, and here . more will be added. 07:45
Will Obama use the State Departments “Our Oceans” Conference to designate canyons and seamounts National Marine Monument?
The third installment of the Our Ocean forum will convene in Washington, D.C., this week and the betting window is open on whether the Obama administration will use the event to announce the designation of new National Marine Monuments. No one — neither conservationists nor fishing stakeholders — claims to know exactly what will happen when the two-day, international event opens Thursday. But it has not escaped anyone’s attention that the Obama administration has used the same forum in the past to make similar announcements. The Obama administration’s decision not to use the Antiquities Act to designate any portion of Cashes Ledge as a monument validated fishing stakeholders and others who characterized the proposal — which originated with the Conservation Law Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Pew Charitable Trusts — as an end-run around the existing fisheries management system and wholly unnecessary given the existing protections already afforded the area. Read the story here 07:55
Zeldin: Congress needs to block president’s latest Marine Monument plan
Recent Marine Monument designations proclaimed by the Obama Administration have been the largest in U.S. history. In 2016, President Obama declared a 490,000 square-mile area of water in the Pacific Ocean as a National Marine Monument after receiving little public input and through a process where transparency was severely lacking. As a result of this new monument, recreational fishing was severely limited and commercial fishing was completely banned, hurting fishermen in the Pacific Ocean. Now, important fishing areas in the Northwest Atlantic, where fishermen from Greenport, Montauk, and throughout the entire New York and New England region have worked for centuries, are under consideration for a National Marine Monument designation. As the president is pushing to apply this power to large areas of ocean in the Northwest Atlantic, he is threatening to shutdown thousands of square miles of ocean from Long Island fishermen. Read the rest here 15:55
Fishermen Oppose National Marine Monument Off New England
A plan announced Thursday that would designate a unique undersea area 150 miles off the New England coast as the nation’s first Atlantic marine national monument was met with immediate opposition from commercial fishermen. The proposal would dramatically restrict commercial fishing in that area and is drawing fierce opposition from commercial fisherman like Stonington’s Bobby Guzzo, who owns and operates two boats “That’s just the government trying to take all our water,” Guzzo said Thursday from aboard his fishing vessel. “I’m dead set against it.” Joseph Gilbert’s Empire Fisheries operates four fishing boats out of Stonington, and he also has problems with the proposed undersea sanctuary. “Fishermen are conservationists, too,” Gilbert said, explaining that he believes the proposal “is well intentioned” but simply “goes too far” without considering the impact on commercial fishing operations and supplies of fish for consumers. “A lot of these areas are protected already,” Gilbert said. Read the rest here 08:45
California’s offshore seamounts at risk of being closed
It has long been rumored that conservation groups were hoping to have the President use the Antiquities Act to designate Tanner and Cortes banks as National Marine Monuments. Finally, this rumor has been put on paper and its reach is far more than just the two areas mentioned above. The areas in grey below are those being proposed for Monument designation. Unlike the substantial public process that accompanies creation of a National Marine Sanctuary, designation of an area as a National Marine Monument is done outside the public eye – under the Antiquities Act. The Antiquities Act (54 USC §320301 et seq) empowers the President to, “in the President’s discretion, declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated on land owned or controlled by the Federal Government to be national monuments.” Read the rest here 17:09
The Enviro Crackpots keep pushing! – Cashes Ledge deserves permanent protection
World famous oceanographer Sylvia Earle dived Cashes Ledge and declared it to be a “Yellowstone” of the ocean. Visions of enviro’s appear in my head doing the wave chanting ocean Serengeti over and over, trance like,,, Despite all the fishing that has rendered much of the Northeast a shell of its colonial riches, there remains in precious spots underwater life every bit the rival of the California coast and the Caribbean. Two such areas, Cashes Ledge and the New England Mid Atlantic Coral Canyons and Seamounts, deserve national marine monument status from President Obama before he leaves office. But there aren’t any such protections in the Atlantic, and groups such as the Conservation Law Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the National Resources Defense Council, are campaigning for protection. (Full disclosure: I (Derrick Jackson) coauthored a book on Maine’s puffin restoration and discussed the bird’s winter feeding at a CLF luncheon this winter). Get the gist? Read the rest here 16:58
BREAKING – Cashes Ledge dropped from National Marine Monument plan
The proposal to place a National Marine Monument around the area of Cashes Ledge about 80 miles off of Cape Ann has been “taken off the table,” members of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality told fishing stakeholders Thursday at a meeting in Boston. The Obama administration’s decision not to use the Antiquities Act to designate the area of Cashes Ledge as a Marine National Monument is a victory for fishing stakeholders and others who characterized the proposal — pushed largely by environmentalists and conservationists — as an end-run around the existing fisheries management system and wholly unnecessary given the existing protections already afforded the area that currently is closed to commercial fishing. Read the rest here 11:31
New Bedford crab fisherman opposes ‘National Marine Monument’ for Atlantic
“It’s very scary,” said Williams, owner of New Bedford’s 
. that employs nearly 150 people. “We have to fish these areas. That’s where the red crab live – at these depths,” he said. Roger Fleming, an attorney with Earth Justice, argued in favor of the marine monument in a recent blog post saying “a broad coalition of scientists, small business owners, fishermen, faith groups, civic leaders, and conservationists have sent a clear message that we need to save these ecologically important places before irreparable damage is done,,, Read the rest here 18:19
Fight the threat to Maine workers – Governor Paul R. LePage
“A National Marine Monument putting Cashes Ledge and undersea canyons and seamounts in the Gulf of Maine off-limits to commercial fishing activity will affect Maine’s offshore lobstermen, tuna fishermen, herring fishermen and groundfish fishermen. Moreover, this comes on the heels of a roughly 10-year habitat amendment process at the New England Fishery Management Council. It looks like environmental interest groups that are unhappy with that process are now going to a higher authority to upend the result achieved by the council. Procedurally, this type of end-run is a terrible precedent. Read the rest here 11:26
