Gulf of Maine: America's first ocean wilderness?

The Gulf of Maine International Ocean Wilderness area provides habitat for diverse marine life

By Environmental News Network staff

"The abundance of sea-fish are almost beyond believing," English clergyman Francis Higginson noted of the Gulf of Maine in 1630. "(I) saw great store of whales and grampus, and such abundance of mackerel that it would astonish one to behold."

Three hundred seventy years later, Martin Willison, a conservation biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, says the area is being overfished and many species are severely depleted.

To stem that tide, conservationists are proposing to designate part of the Gulf of Maine as America's first ocean wilderness. Last week they sent a joint letter to President Clinton and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, asking them to apply the terrestrial designation to the ocean.

At present there is no wild ocean counterpart to Yellowstone or Glacier national parks. Wilderness areas in the United States have historically stopped at the shoreline.

"This would be the first time in the world someone has thought of a [wilderness area] as a means of protection and a way to enhance fisheries and biodiversity," said Willison, who has worked on the marine wilderness idea since 1993.

"Clinton has a half a dozen ways to designate wilderness but none of them apply to the ocean," said Ron Huber of the Coastal Waters Project in Maine. "The president could invent a new way of protecting oceans."

The designation would set aside a protected marine area 20 miles wide along the international border between Canada and the United States for scientific research and the protection of marine biodiversity.

No industrial fishing, mining, oil drilling, fish farming or other activities that harm wildlife or damage habitat would be permitted in the area, which would cover approximately 2,000 square miles.

Colorful corals live on the Gulf of Maine sea floor.

A rich diversity of marine life, ranging from sponges and corals to cod, swordfish and right whales, would benefit from the protection.

Safeguarding the Gulf of Maine's ecosystem will also help researchers understand how it functions free of marine industries.

"Scientists will be able to compare non-exploited areas with exploited areas," said Andrew Christie. "There is no other area where that is possible."

"Presently, nobody has the slightest idea how the Gulf of Maine is supposed to work as a mature system," said Huber.

Huber said the wilderness designation will have little effect on the fishing industry and would accommodate lobster and crab fisheries. "Most of the area is already protected (by the Shared Boarder Accords of 1995) and patrolled by Canadian and American coast guards," he said.

Nevertheless, losing access to part of a highly productive fishing grounds has upset members of the fishing community.

"In the future, especially in Canada, they are gearing up to do some fairly massive operations," said Christie.

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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Task Force Atlantis
Gulf of Maine Council
Center for Marine Conservation
Sea Shepherd International
Coastal Waters Project
The Marine Conservation Biology Institute
The American Oceans Campaign.

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