Marine park in the Atlantic
President Barack Obama announced the creation of America’s first national marine park in the Atlantic Ocean yesterday, designating an area near Cape Cod for protection from fishing and oil drilling.
The area is over twice the size of the Grand Canyon national park, and described as being rich in geological wonders including underwater mountains and valleys. Some of the “seamounts” rise 2350m from the ocean floor, and the crevasses and valleys surrounding them are home to deep- sea corals, sharks, sea turtles and whales.
The park, to be named the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, will lie 210km southeast of Cape Cod.
Fishing associations strongly disagreed with the creation of the park, insisting that they were managing the fish stocks themselves and that any form of protection was unnecessary.
They have 60 days to cease fishing in the waters, and lobster and crab fishermen have seven years to move.
But Brad Sewell, who oversees work on fisheries and Atlantic Coast issues at the Natural Resources Defence Council, called the designation “an incredible victory for ocean conservation and climate change”.
It comes less than a month after Obama announced the creation of the world’s largest marine reserve — off the coast of Hawaii.