Here in Maine and New England generally, the Trump administration’s plans to expand exploitation of natural resources in the Kathadin Woods and Waters National Monument has rightly received the lion’s share of public attention and debate. But out to sea, something similar has been proposed for the nation’s first permanently protected marine reserve, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts monument.
In this week’s Maine Sunday Telegram I describe the facts around the debate, which pits a subset of southern New England’s fishermen — and Trump’s Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke — against scientists and conservationists. Read on for details.
For more on the Gulf of Maine, consider “Mayday,” the 2015 Press Herald series on climate change hereabouts, or this recent story on the recent discovery that increased warming of the Gulf is not uniform throughout the year.
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author, historian and award-winning journalist. He is the author of seven books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at Maine's Portland Press Herald, he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a 2016 Pulitzer Prize. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.