September 26, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — To the predictable responses of the commercial fishing industry — largely negative — and the conservation community — largely positive — President Obama last week set aside nearly 5,000 square miles off the coast of New England as a marine sanctuary.

Acting under the aegis of the Antiquities Act of 1906, he established the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine Monument. That was the same statutory authority the President used to establish the controversial 87,600-acre Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in northern Maine last month.

In August, the President expanded the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off the coast of Hawaii by 442,781 square miles, creating the world’s largest marine protected area.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the monument encompasses a total of 4,913 square miles in two tracts. The first, rectangular in shape, protects three deep-ocean canyons: Oceanographer, Gilbert and Lydonia. The second, a larger triangle, protects the Bear, Physalla, Mytilus and Retriever seamounts.

Each of the three protected underwater canyons is deeper than the Grand Canyon. The four underwater mountains are, according to NOAA, “biodiversity hotspots and home to many rare and endangered species.”

To be managed jointly by NOAA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the protected areas are home to deep-sea coral ecosystems and home to unique species. Additionally, the protected areas create oceanographic conditions that concentrate pelagic species, including whales, dolphins and turtles; and highly migratory fish such as tunas, bullfish and sharks.

A large number of birds also rely on this area for foraging. The purpose of the proposed monument designation is to protect these fragile and largely pristine deep-sea habitats, and species and ecosystems.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American