Seafood Industry Urges Biden to Halt Expansion of Marine Monuments
Several dozen seafood industry, related business entities and coastal communities are urging President Biden to halt proposals to create or expand any marine national monuments in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) during his final days in office.
The group told Biden in a Nov. 18 letter that between 2006 and 2016, five marine national monuments spanning nearly 1.2 million square miles of ocean were created in the U.S. EEZ by presidential proclamations, so that over one-quarter of U.S. ocean territory is now part of a Marine Protected Area where commercial resource extraction is prohibited.
Further reliance upon the Antiquities Act to proclaim additional tracts of ocean territory off limits to fishing and other sustainable uses would cause significant negative impacts, the gr...