Fears for right whales rise after Trump reopens area to commercial fishing

Environmental groups are condemning U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to allow commercial fishing in a previously closed area in the North Atlantic. 

Last Friday, Trump signed a proclamation that rolls back protections in a 13,000-square-kilometre area off of Cape Cod. The area, known as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, is located along the migratory path of the endangered North Atlantic right whale. 

Groups, many of which have spent years pushing for the protections, worry that opening the area to fishing will put right whales at even greater risk of entanglement in fishing gear.

The New England Aquarium was quick to denounce the move. 

Kelly Kryc, the director of marine conservation policy and leadership, said the aquarium is "disappointed and devastated" by the decision. 

Kryc, who has led the aquarium's advocacy for the protected zone for years, said all kinds of species have been spotted in the area, including the right whale. 

"It is a critically important area for all sorts of marine mammals and dolphins, different types of species of dolphins."  

All of those species are at greater risk if commercial fishing resumes, she said.  —  that is a risk to North Atlantic right whales and other whales and dolphins that might be in the area."

The marine monument, the first of its kind in the Atlantic Ocean, was created by former president Barack Obama in 2016.

More than twice the size of Prince Edward Island, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument includes two distinct areas, one that features three canyons and one that contains four seamounts, or underwater mountains. 

The area contains fragile marine ecosystems, including important deep sea corals, endangered whales and sea turtles, other marine mammals and numerous fish species, according to NOAA Fisheries, also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the Department of Commerce.

"The Trump administration once again has chosen a moment of national vulnerability to take aim at the environment, this time by rolling back protections of the only marine national monument in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean,"  Vikki Spruill, the CEO and president  of the New England Aquarium, said in a news release.

The statement from the aquarium said aerial surveys revealed an "extraordinary diversity of animals" in the area. 

"During those flights, our scientists have observed pods of dolphins 1,000 strong feeding on the rich abundance of squid at the surface. Most recently, two blue whales were spotted there for the first time."

There are only about 400 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, and fewer than 100 breeding females.

Researchers were excited to see a boon in calves this season with 10 new whales observed in U.S. water, but Fisheries and Oceans Canada said one is presumed dead.

Last month, a days-old calf was spotted with injuries from a vessel strike. 

Ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement are the leading cause of death for North Atlantic right whales. 

Since 2017, 29 whales — not counting the calf presumed dead — have died in Canadian waters.