Oceana - Protecting the World's Oceans

Restore Protections for the U.S. Atlantic’s Only Marine National Monument

If we don’t act now, destructive commercial fishing will continue in the only Marine National Monument in the U.S. Atlantic.

Former President Trump revoked protections for Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument last year, allowing potentially destructive commercial fishing activity to continue. This monument includes diverse corals and sponges on the seafloor, serves as a nursery for commercially important fish species, and is home to critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. Because of President Trump, this robust underwater ecosystem is currently at risk.  

President Biden can turn this around, before it’s too late. The White House has asked the Department of Commerce to review President Trump’s action, and Oceana is calling on the President to fully restore protections and prohibitions on industrial fishing in the monument. We need your help!

Tell President Biden to protect the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Defend our marine national monuments. Add your name.

Dear President Biden:

I urge you to take action to restore protections to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.  This unique area is important to the ocean ecosystem and it should be protected from all threats including commercial fishing that can harm the marine life that calls the monument area home.

Although I am unlikely to ever make the 150-mile trip to visit the monument’s surface and even more unlikely to venture more than a mile down to see the coral and sponge communities in the canyons and on the seamounts, I value these areas and the biodiversity that they support.

Protecting key habitats on land and in the water will be important parts of America’s response to climate change and I urge you to reinstate protections for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument as one of the first steps in your administration’s bold, forward-thinking climate action plan.

Thank you again for the opportunity to comment on this important issue.  I look forward to your announcement in the near future.

Sincerely,