Obama Naming First National Marine Monument in Atlantic Ocean

President Obama is designating a new national marine monument on Thursday, a deep-sea land mass the size of Connecticut off the coast of Cape Cod. It is the first designation in the Atlantic Ocean and is rife with endangered and exotic species. “It’s gonna be increasingly important as climate change, its impacts increase,” said Brad Sewall of the National Resources Defense Council. “We need to have these protected reservoirs of resilience.” Bob Vanasse of the National Coalition for Fishing Communities, though, said the president cannot legally designate the monument. “This is not only an end-run around Congress, it’s an end-run around the entire system the Congress created to protect these ocean resources,” Vanasse said.