June 21, 2017 — Editor’s Note:

Fishing groups have widely criticized the Obama Administration’s marine monument designation process as opaque, and argued that administration officials did not adequately address concerns raised. Conversely, in this Cape Cod Times article, Priscilla Brooks, Vice President and Director of Ocean Conservation at the Conservation Law Foundation, claimed that the Obama administration adequately took fishermen’s concerns into account before designating the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Ms. Brooks said this was evidenced by the administration’s decision to reduce the size of the monument by 60 percent from the original proposal.

However, there was never an official Atlantic marine monument proposal from the Obama administration. Fishermen, elected officials, regulators, and concerned shoreside businesses were not apprised of the specifics of the Obama Administration’s monument plan until the final shape of it was shared just days and hours before it was announced.

The environmental community, including the Conservation Law Foundation, provided a proposal to the Administration, which officials referred to at times in meetings, but always with the caveat that the environmentalist proposal was not an official Administration proposal. At no time before the announcement was imminent did the commercial fishing community have any idea of what action the Administration might take.

It is possible that Ms. Brooks was stating that the monument eventually proposed by the Obama Administration was reduced by 60 percent from the plan that CLF and other environmental groups proposed. Commercial fishermen were apprehensive about the relationship between the Administration and the environmental community with due cause, since in 2015 environmental activists attempted to push a monument designation through the Administration in secret before the Our Ocean conference in Chile.

Ms. Brooks also claimed that “there was a robust public process.”

In the lead-up to the 2016 monument designation, there was one public meeting in Rhode Island where fishermen were allowed just 2 minutes to talk.

There were a number of subsequent meetings in fishing ports, and in the White House complex. But those who attended those meeting largely felt their views were being ignored. In fact, many of them participated in the recent meeting with new Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.

In July 2016, Eric Reid, General Manager at Seafreeze, who participated in both regional and White House meetings wrote, “No one in the Obama administration’s Council on Environmental Quality has put forward an actual, concrete proposal of what an Atlantic monument might look like.” He added, “The uncertain and opaque nature of the process that has so far surrounded the potential marine monument has left fishermen with no idea as to what areas and which fisheries will be affected, nor which activities will be prohibited.”

BOSTON — Fishing groups from around New England met with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday to air complaints about former President Barack Obama’s designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument last year.

The monument, the first marine national monument in U.S. Atlantic waters, protects about 4,000 square miles of ocean 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod.

Fishermen say the protected area in which fishing is prohibited hurts their business and places an undue burden on an already heavily regulated industry. But scientists say the area, which is home to hundreds of species of marine life and fragile coral, is an important natural resource that must be protected.

In his proclamation creating the marine monument, Obama prohibited fossil fuel or mineral exploration, all commercial fishing, and other activities that could disturb the sea floor. Scientific research is allowed with a permit. Commercial red crab and lobster fishermen have to phase out their operations within the monument area over the next seven years.

During their meeting with Zinke at Legal Sea Foods on Boston Harbor, fishermen and industry representatives asked the secretary to consider dissolving the monument or changing the regulations within its boundaries and complained about the way it was originally designated.

“As an American, this brought me to tears at my desk,” said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. “No one should have the power to sign people out of work.”

Some commercial fishermen said they felt the former administration did not take their concerns into account before designating the monument.

“Even though we were allowed minimal — and that’s an understatement — input, we received mostly lip service,” said Eric Reid, general manager of Seafreeze Shoreside in Narragansett, Rhode Island. “Small businesses like me that need stability to grow their business and invest in America are at risk. We can make America and commercial fishing great again.”

But Priscilla Brooks, vice president and director of ocean conservation at the Conservation Law Foundation, said the former administration did take fishermen’s concerns into account. Obama reduced the size of the original proposed monument by 60 percent and allowed lobster and crab fishermen a seven-year grace period to continue fishing there.

“There was a robust public process,” she said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times