A New National Park for the Ocean

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A new national park for the ocean not far from New York Harbor. 

Although few people will ever get to truly enjoy this marine reserve due to its faraway location off the coast (see below for a better idea of where it's located), biodiversity will be protected for a large group of aquatic species, especially highly threatened deep-sea corals, and a variety of marine mammals, fish, shellfish, and other marine invertebrates.
 
This new protection zone in the Atlantic Ocean covers an area approximately the size of Virginia in waters offshore of six states. It starts at depths of approximately 1,500 feet. While commercial fishing will still be allowed in the area, fishermen may not use any gear that will reach the bottom of the sea floor, which would damage deep-sea corals.
 
Never heard of marine reserves before? You’re not alone. The concept is fairly new to the general public, even though these sanctuaries in the sea have been around for many years. The first marine reserve or sanctuary was created by President Ford in 1974 off the coast of North Carolina as a way to preserve the wreckage of the historic Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. Today, there are 223 marine reserves in the waters of the United States, including in the Great Lakes. They help to protect around 3.1% of U.S. waters, a small number for sure, but better than nothing. Clearly more needs to be done, especially to connect marine reserves so as not to have them fragmented and in pieces. 
 
Marine reserves protect rare and threatened species, provide opportunities for scientific research and tourism, and help sustain fisheries around the world by providing safe places for aquatic species to forage, spawn, or mature. There are so many benefits to marine reserves the only real question is why don’t we have more of them in the United States? 

The region in yellow is scheduled to become the largest marine protected area in the eastern United States. (Map: Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council)

New Atlantic Coast Deep-Sea Memorial will be Largest in United States
A vision for the ocean has become a legacy.
The vision comes from the late Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, who understood the value of protecting the ocean, particularly under-studied areas such as our deep-sea coral habitats found off the Atlantic Coast.  Back in 2005 he said: “We have only recently learned that corals and sponges form reefs in the cold, dark waters of the deep sea. Let’s protect them before we lose them entirely; before we learn the extent of their importance to us and to the ecology of the deep sea.”
Now the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has unanimously approved the naming of the U.S. Atlantic Coast’s largest protected area as the Frank R. Lautenberg Deep Sea Coral Protection Area. It represents the first application of deep-sea authorities under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) as advocated for by Senator Lautenberg, who passed away in 2013 at age 89. 
Pending approval by the U.S. Department of Commerce this year, the area will protect deep-sea corals and other vulnerable habitats by preventing fishing methods that contact the ocean floor. Deep-sea corals may live for thousands of years and do not require any sunlight, yet they damage easily upon contact with fishing gear.
The new Frank R. Lautenberg Deep Sea Coral Protection Area covers an area the size of Virginia in waters offshore of six states. It starts at depths of approximately 1,500 feet and extends to the border of the U.S. jurisdiction. Fishing is still allowed in the area, but fishermen may not use gear that contacts the bottom.
Senator Lautenberg was a champion of enabling the nation’s eight regional fishery management councils to create new areas to protect deep-sea corals from damaging fishing practices. The 2007 reauthorization of the MSA, the primary law governing U.S. marine fisheries, established a research program on deep-sea coral habitat and a provision that informed this decision by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.
Posted February 16 , 2016