A proposal to designate an underwater mountain range and ecosystem of diverse red coral and many fish, Cashes Ledge, as the Atlantic Ocean's first national marine monument, will not go forward soon. The White House Council on Environmental Quality conveyed the news last week that President Barack Obama has decided not to create the monument at this time.
That's a disappointment to environmental groups, which want protection for Cashes Ledge and a nearby area, Coral Canyons and Seamounts, east of Cape Ann, Mass. The two together have been called "the Yellowstone or Yosemite of the ocean" by Peter Baker, director for U.S. Oceans and Northeast for the Pew Charitable Trusts. The areas are known for strong biodiversity, kelp forests and providing habitat for threatened right whales. Cashes Ledge has mountain peaks that rise near the water surface. Both areas are in the Gulf of Maine.
"Currently, there are four marine monuments protecting 300,000 square miles of the Pacific," said Baker. "For the Atlantic, we're proposing that 6,000 square miles with these two monuments be protected."
The groups argue that Obama could use the Antiquities Act to bypass congressional approval for a monument. President George Bush did this in 2006 when he created what is now the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, an area of 140,000 square miles off Hawaii. The groups' fear is that if this area of the Atlantic goes unprotected, it will later be exposed to oil and gas exploration dredging or undersea mining for minerals. Both of those are already happening elsewhere; Canada's Nova Scotia is being explored for gas.
Two scientists - Peter Auster of Mystic Aquarium and Scott Kraus of the New England Aquarium - recently completed scientific analysis of both areas and released the findings in a webinar sponsored by Pew Trusts. Kraus studied marine mammals relatively near to the surface, and Auster focused on benthic fish (those at the lowest water level). "It's unfortunate that [the White House] made that announcement before getting the scientific information available today," Baker said during the webinar.
Post-analysis, the scientists noted that Cashes Ledge has 509 times the fish biomass of coastal areas, and provides habitat for a thrilling range of whales and dolphins and a resident population of cod.
In the Canyons and Seamounts area, four seamounts with very steep sides rise from deep oceanographic regions into shallow water. There are at least 73 types of coral and 615 occurrences of coral in those waters, and some of the coral grow to two and a half meters in height. Coral of this type and size is likely "a millennia in age" based on aging studies in other areas, noted Kraus.
The range of chemosynthetic communities, those that use chemical energy instead of energy from sunlight, in the Seamounts area is unusual, Kraus noted. These benthic communities are an important part of the food web.
Elsewhere in the Seamounts area, thousands of dolphins swim. It is the marine equivalent of the Serengeti, says Auster. Beaked whales live there as well - they are the deepest divers on the planet and are also able to stay down the longest.
The scientists propose protection of Cashes Ledge and Seamounts partly because they are already relatively pristine. Cashes Ledge has virtually no fishing, having been protected for 14 years by New England Fisheries Management Area. But the two scientists noted that oil and gas exploration dredging could be a threat, as could manganese mining.
Preserving the two areas would most likely increase the number of fish that thrive there and go into nearby fisheries, Auster pointed out. This idea is backed up by a 2015 study of waters in and near marine protected areas in California's Channel Islands by the University of California Santa Barbara. The marine worlds there showed greater biodiversity after 10 years of protection.
"As America expanded into the western territories, presidents like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson acted decisively to protect natural treasures such as Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon before they could be industrialized," said Michael Conathan, director of ocean policy for the Center of American Progress, in the webinar. "With similar leadership from President Obama, areas like Cashes Ledge and the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts are poised to become the national treasures of tomorrow."
