You are invited to lend you voice to our call on President Obama to by proclamation protect the most pristine ocean places in the Gulf of Maine and beyond Georges Bank out 200 miles into the Atlantic Ocean.
We are advocating for permanent protection of a wondrous ocean place consisting of five ocean canyons that plunge 10,000 feet deep off Georges Bank (Oceanographer, Gilbert, Lydonia, Nygren, and Heezen Canyons), four deep ocean seamounts (Bear, Physalia, Mytilus, and Retriever), and the Cashes Ledge Closed Area.
In these ten beautiful sea places with pristine ocean floors, you will find more than a dozen essential benthic habitats. An underwater mountain range (Cashes Ledge), these canyons and seamounts are unspoiled wilderness in the midst of the most heavily fished and exploited portion of America's waters.
A protection proclamation would demonstrate the unwounding of a damaged ocean sutured by the most collaborative, best-informed regional planning body in the world.
The Northeast Regional Planning Body consists of eleven federal authorities including the New England Fishery Management Council, eleven state agencies from all six New England states, and ten tribal members. Their good work must continue unfettered by Congress.