HARTFORD, Ct. -- Groups that protect the oceans are looking at their legal options after President Donald Trump declared on Friday that commercial fishing soon will be allowed at the only marine national monument in New England.

In 2016, President Barack Obama created the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, about 150 miles off of the Connecticut coast. Gib Brogan, senior campaign manager with Oceana, said the area is special because when the current hits the seamount, it causes an upwelling of nutrients, creating a feeding ground for many protected species.

"Everything from whales and seabirds to deep-sea corals are found in this monument," Brogan said. "And we're concerned that continuing or adding new fishing activity in this monument will undermine the conservation value of the area."

The original monument designation gave lobster and red-crab fishermen until 2023 to wind down their operations, but this proclamation would eliminate that deadline. The president claims the rollback will help revive the post-COVID economy, but studies show the fishing haul from the monument is only 5% of the fishery.

Brogan worries certain types of commercial fishing, currently prohibited in the monument, could make a comeback - destructive practices that kill off a huge percentage of bycatch.

"It excluded fishing with miles-long strings of baited hooks that are used to catch tuna and swordfish," he said. "It has also prohibited these bottom trawls: nets that are dragged along the sea floor that can scoop up and pulverize corals and sponges."

Brogan said it is unclear exactly how the administration plans to deregulate the monument. The fishing industry already has challenged the legality of the monument in court and lost the case.

The Antiquities Act gives the president the power to create new national monuments but does not grant the power to rescind them.


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Marine-conservation groups are celebrating after the U.S. House passed the America COMPETES Act on Friday.

The bill primarily boosts semiconductor production in the U.S. but a lesser-known provision would phase out an older type of fishing gear called drift gill nets in federal waters, something environmental groups have sought for decades.

Ben Enticknap is Pacific campaign manager and senior scientist at the nonprofit Oceana. He said the mile-long, nearly invisible gill nets are incredibly dangerous for marine life.

"They are set at night in the epicenter of ocean wildlife off the coast of southern California to catch swordfish," said Enticknap. "But they also catch whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks and many, many other animals."

The state of California already is phasing out its state drift gillnet permit program, which offers fishing crews cash to turn in their nets and permits, and helps them buy a new, safer type of gear called deep-set buoy gear.

All but four fishing boat captains in Southern California have begun the transition - and those four will have to follow if the bill becomes law.

Opponents of the bill, referring primarily to its provisions on manufacturing, say it is not tough enough on China.

Enticknap noted that it also would ban the sale of shark fins in the United States.

"We've already prohibited shark fins in California and Oregon and Washington," said Enticknap. "And this kind of takes that same approach that's already been passed by a number of states and makes it national."

A version of the COMPETES Act already has passed the U.S. Senate. Now the two have to be reconciled and passed again in both chambers before the final version can go to President Joe Biden's desk.

SAN DIEGUITO LAGOO, Calif. - Coastal protection groups are pressing California to prioritize so-called "blue carbon" ecosystems in the fight against climate change.

Dozens of groups have sent a letter to the head of the California Natural Resources Agency - asking for action to protect existing wetlands and near-shore areas, and restore those that have been degraded.

Gilly Lyons, an officer with the Conserving Marine Life in the United States program of The Pew Charitable Trusts, is among those who signed the letter.

"The request from the signers is to protect biodiversity, to store and sequester carbon, and to mitigate the effects of climate change that we're already living with," said Lyons, "things like ocean acidification, storm surges, coastal flooding, etc."

The letter comes during the public comment period for a draft of the CNRA's new "Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy," to be finalized early next year.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order requiring state agencies to act to accelerate the natural removal of carbon and build climate resilience, especially in lower-income communities.

Angela Kemsley is conservation and communication manager at the group WILDCOAST, which is currently restoring two lagoons in San Diego County. She said natural features like eelgrass beds are important tools in climate mitigation.

"They're actually much more efficient at storing this carbon than land-based plants," said Kemsley. "And so, they're able to take a bunch of carbon out of the atmosphere, store it in the soil - and that helps to fight climate change."

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 90% of California's historic wetlands have been drained for agriculture and development over the past century.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A groundbreaking measure to reduce plastic waste has just qualified for the 2022 ballot.

The proposal would give companies a big incentive to reduce plastic packaging by taxing each item by one penny. It would also make producers meet certain goals for recycling and reuse.

Jennifer Fearing, legislative advocate in Sacramento for the nonprofit Oceana, said the program would raise about a billion dollars a year.

"That would go to funding local governments, so they can upgrade waste and recycling systems, to support state and local governments in broader waste recycling and composting, and then the final 30% would go to environmental mitigation," Fearing outlined.

The American Chemistry Council opposes the measure, proposing instead a more lenient national plan to require all plastic packaging to be made of 30% recycled material by 2030.

The proposal would ban styrofoam food packaging, and would apply to all plastic packaging and foodware, including items sold in stores, restaurants or online.

A huge percentage of the items consumers try to recycle actually end up in landfills, and now many foreign countries are refusing to take our trash.

Fearing pointed out throwaway plastics are causing widespread environmental degradation.

"Plastics are just choking storm water drains, and water treatment and sewer systems," Fearing observed. "They're showing up as microplastics in the oceans and in fresh water."

A 2020 study in the journal Science predicted with current consumption patterns, the amount of plastic waste in our rivers, lakes and the ocean will more than triple by 2050.