The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is a unique and dramatic ocean area off the coast of New England.
Designated as a monument in 2016, it is the first major marine national monument established in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean. This protected area offers food, shelter, and nursery habitat to a spectacular array of marine life, including endangered whales, sea turtles, puffins, and rare deep-sea cold-water corals.
Despite tremendous public support for the monument, its fate has already come under threat.
What you should know about this irreplaceable area and the fight to protect it:
On June 5, 2020, President Trump issued a proclamation that exposes Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to harmful commercial fishing.
As the U.S. confronts its long history of systemic racism and deals with a pandemic, Trump is using this moment of national crisis as cover to assault the environment. This move defies the will of the American people. In a recent poll, 92% of Americans said that government regulations are needed to protect the ocean.
Nor will opening this monument up to commercial fishing boost the fishing economy the way the Trump administration claims. There is no evidence that fishing harvest has been harmed in the creation of marine national monuments. Furthermore, the fragile ecosystems within Northeast Canyons and Seamounts would be irreparably harmed by industrial-scale fishing gear.
This isn’t the first time that industrial interests have threatened Northeast Canyons and Seamounts. Several years ago, Earthjustice — on behalf of our clients Zack Klyver, head naturalist at Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company in Maine, and the Center for Biological Diversity — and other groups intervened in a lawsuit opposing a fishing industry challenge to the designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts. On Oct. 5, 2018, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit dismissed the challenge and upheld President Obama’s designation of the monument.
Invoking the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt, who signed the Antiquities Act into law, Judge Boasberg wrote in his opinion: “[J]ust as President Roosevelt had the authority to establish the Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908, … so President Obama could establish the Canyons and Seamounts Monument in 2016.”
While the U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit's ruling was a victory for protecting America’s public lands and waters, the Trump administration has also intoned that it may attempt to allow commercial fishing in the monument or to revoke, shrink, or otherwise change the protective status of the monument.
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Rare centuries-old cold-water corals are the foundation of this deep-sea ecosystem.
Specimens of deep-water black corals have been dated to more than 4,000 years old, making them the oldest known marine organism. Cold-water coral communities provide food, spawning habitat, and shelter for masses of fish and invertebrate species. Unlike tropical corals, cold-water corals do not rely on symbiotic algae to survive; their polyps feed on food particles from the surrounding water.
This national monument encompasses ecosystems in and around three undersea canyons — Oceanographer, Lydonia, and Gilbert, each deeper than the Grand Canyon — and four undersea extinct volcanoes, known as “seamounts” — Bear, Mytilus, Physalia, and Retriever.
These four seamounts are the only ones found in U.S. Atlantic waters. Seamounts are nutrient-rich environments: biological oases of marine life that punctuate the desert expanse of the deep sea floor.
Within this area, upwellings of deep, cold water bring nutrients to the lower echelons of the food chain: plankton, schools of squid, and forage fish. The concentration in turn nurtures the behemoths of the ocean, including sharks, sperm whales and the North Atlantic right whale, which are all abundant in these waters.
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In the Atlantic Ocean, 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
40.122, -68.212
40.527, -68.268
40.600, -67.628
40.207, -67.578
38.865, -66.931*
39.939,-65.943
40.044,-67.722
*U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone forms the eastern boundary.
The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument protects 4,913 square miles of pristine ocean ecosystem — an area nearly the size of Connecticut, covering 1.5 percent of U.S. federal waters on the East Coast.
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Yes. The monument is a refuge for marine life and provides a buffer for the Northwest Atlantic against the worst impacts of climate change.
With technology advancements, the deep ocean is becoming more accessible to oil and gas exploration and industrial fishing. The national monument designation shields the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts from commercial extractive activities, including commercial fishing and oil and gas drilling.
If these marine reserves are not placed under permanent protection, they are at risk of being destroyed by resource extraction activities, such as bottom-scouring fishing gear.
With these areas will go some of our best hopes for restoring ecosystems that have been devastated by overfishing and development.
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Protected areas of historic or scientific value, which can include geographical areas, buildings, and statues. The overriding management goal for a national monument is protection of the area.
The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is jointly managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
National monuments can be designated through Congressional legislation or by Presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Almost half of our national parks were first designated as national monuments.
There are more than 120 national monuments. Prior to the designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, there were four other marine national monuments, all in the Pacific Ocean: Mariana Trench, Pacific Remote Islands, Rose Atoll, and Papahānaumokuākea.
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More than 200 marine scientists, educators, business owners, surfers, members of faith-based organizations, and the region’s leading aquaria and conservation organizations — including Earthjustice, National Geographic Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Charitable Trusts, and Conservation Law Foundation — also voiced their support.
Additionally, more than 300,000 people from across the country sent messages to President Barack Obama in support of a proclamation to designate these areas as a national monument. President Obama designated the national monument on Sept. 15, 2016. Tens of thousands of Earthjustice members were among those who sent letters.
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According to government data and documents released under a Freedom of Information Act request, the commercial fishing industry will not be detrimentally impacted.
Among a batch of documents released during one FOIA request was an email on Sept. 11, 2017, from Randal Bowman, the lead staff member for the monument review, who suggested deleting language that said most fishing vessels near the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument “generated 5% or less of their annual landings from within the monument” — because it “undercuts the case for the ban being harmful.”
The monument protects recreational access for the public, including recreational fishing. The waters of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument hold popular offshore fishing spots for anglers seeking billfish, tuna, and mahi mahi.
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Yes. Cashes Ledge, 80 miles southeast of Portland, Maine, has been described as the “Yellowstone of the North Atlantic” by marine biologist Sylvia Earle. It is one of the last places where cod and pollock still thrive, carrying the hope for restoring these iconic New England fish that are the lifeblood of many coastal communities.
The abundance of life in Cashes Ledge is a window into “an ecosystem past” that has all but disappeared from New England's Atlantic, the result of decades of overfishing.
Schools of bluefin tuna and dolphins make their way through Cashes Ledge. Sea turtles ply the waters, as do many species of whales. The peak of Cashes Ledge, known as Ammen Rock, reaches to just below ocean's surface. It is massive enough to disrupt the Gulf of Maine current, creating unique conditions of nutrient- and oxygen-rich water that feeds a cascade of life.
Cashes Ledge is home to one of the largest kelp forests in the world — and the largest on the Atlantic seaboard. Kelp are ecosystem engineers, building towering underwater forests that, just like their counterparts on land, feed and shelter a vast array of life.
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In February 2020, the Trump administration moved to finalize plans allowing industry and development in Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, both in Utah.
Earthjustice is representing environmental groups and Native American Tribes in a legal challenge to Trump’s proclamation gutting these monuments. We expect a decision this summer. As of June 5, 2020, legal briefs have been submitted by almost all parties. The court will issue a ruling after the final brief is filed.
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Yes!
As Earthjustice's attorneys work in court to defend national monuments across the country, you are an important part of giving voice to defend the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts.
- Spread the word: Impress your friends with the amazing facts you've learned about the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument. (Extinct undersea volcanoes have a rich second life as biological oases of marine life! Coral live outside of tropical waters! And some are the oldest known marine organisms!) And make sure your friends know that this monumental treasure exists and that we must make sure it remains protected.
- Stay up to date on when your voice will matter the most. Sign up for email updates and action alerts from Earthjustice, and we'll keep you informed when letters or calls to decisionmakers will be needed.
- Support our work. Every day, more than a hundred Earthjustice attorneys across the country are fighting on behalf of hundreds of public-interest clients, from national organizations to community groups — and we win. In court, the facts matter. Thanks to the generous support of people like you, the earth has good lawyers.
Thank you for helping to defend the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument.
