Audubon Society to weigh in on protected site fight

PORTLAND, Maine — The National Audubon Society is getting involved in a lawsuit over the future of a national monument in the ocean off New England because of the area’s importance to seabirds, especially colorfully beaked puffins.

Fishing groups sued in federal court against creation of Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which former President Barack Obama designated in 2016. The case is on appeal.

Court documents show that Audubon moved to file a friend-of-thecourt brief in favor of keeping the monument.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg granted the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss the suit against the monument last year. The groups appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Lawyers for the fishing groups have said the monument was illegally created by Obama using the Antiquities Act.

But Karen Hyun, vice president of coasts for Audubon, said the nearly 5,000-square-mile area is especially important to Maine’s vulnerable Atlantic puffins.

Hyun said the health of the puffin population is a tourism boost for Maine.

“It’s really important for the sustainability of these birds,” Hyun said. “It’s a species that people come to the Maine coast to see, to participate in puffin-watching tours.”

A spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees fisheries and oceans for the federal government, declined to comment.

Oral arguments are not yet scheduled, said Jonathan Wood, an attorney for the fishing groups.