Home to both the smallest and largest species on earth, our oceans brim with diverse and breathtaking wildlife. Recognizing the fragility of these ecosystems, presidents from both parties have designated special marine areas as national monuments—also known as “blue parks”—for permanent protection.
But President Trump and U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are threatening to eliminate these safeguards. Their actions would devastate marine national monuments—like Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, Rose Atoll, and the Pacific Remote Islands—by shrinking their borders, giving industry a green light to exploit their resources, or both.
NRDC has been instrumental in the protection of America’s marine treasures, and we continue to fight for our oceans and the life they sustain. Our lawyers recently secured permission to intervene in a lawsuit to defend the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, a spectacular deep-sea area with underwater mountains that rise higher than any peak east of the Rockies and canyons that plunge deeper than the Grand Canyon. Commercial fishing and other extractive practices such as deep-sea mining and oil and gas drilling could wreak havoc on this area’s ancient corals, the endangered and iconic sperm whale, the elusive Cuvier’s beaked whale, and many other species.
Monument designations preserve biodiversity hot spots like these for future generations. Trump’s plans put these treasures at risk. With your help, we can save our blue parks from irreparable harm.
