"Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is the first in the Atlantic. Trump said a prohibition against fishing hurt Maine’s commercial fishing industry."
"President Trump signed a proclamation Friday that opened the Atlantic Ocean’s only fully protected marine sanctuary to commercial fishing, dismissing arguments that crab traps, fishing nets and lines dangling hooks can harm fish and whales.
Fishing can resume at the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of New England, Trump said. The Obama administration closed off nearly 5,000 square miles of ocean in September 2016 to save whales and allow marine life to recover from overfishing. The controversial decision was praised by conservationists and challenged by commercial fishermen from the start.
A coalition of fishing groups sought unsuccessfully to overturn the designation, made under the 1906 Antiquities Act, in federal court. They lost in both federal district court and in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and said they might seek to push the case to the Supreme Court."
Darryl Fears and Juliet Eilperin report for the Washington Post June 5, 2020.
SEE ALSO:
"'Selling Off The Future’: Trump Allows Fishing In Marine Monument" (Guardian)
"Trump Opens New England Marine Monument to Commercial Fishing" (Bloomberg Environment)
"Trump Allows Commercial Fishing In Marine Conservation Area" (AP)
"Trump To Open Atlantic Marine National Monument To Commercial Fishing" (National Geographic)
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