First Oceans

Atlantic monument is home to unique and varied creatures

President Obama designates pristine area to protect sea life off New England coast

dumbo octopus

MONUMENTAL DIVERSITY Spied in the Atlantic canyons and seamounts in 2014, this dumbo octopus is a deep-sea umbrella octopus with fins that resemble the lovable cartoon elephant. 

NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Our Deepwater Backyard: Exploring Atlantic Canyons and Seamounts 2014

By Thomas Sumner

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Two stretches of ocean about 210 kilometers southeast of Cape Cod have become the Atlantic Ocean’s first U.S. marine national monument.

The 12,725-square-kilometer area is called the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The new designation is intended to help protect the region’s fragile deep-sea ecosystem, which includes whales, sea turtles and corals, by gradually phasing out commercial fishing, including for crab and lobster.

“In these waters, the Atlantic Ocean meets the continental shelf in a region of great abundance and diversity as well as stark geological relief,” President Barack Obama said at the September 15 announcement. The new monument includes underwater canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon and submerged extinct volcanoes called seamounts. Expeditions in 2013 and 2014 by the research vessel Okeanos Explorer uncovered species of starfish and deep-sea corals thought to have never been seen before.

The new Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument (outlined) will help protect marine life — some of which is seen in the following images, described by researchers on NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer expeditions.   source: NOAA; image: Google Earth Pro
A deep-see octocoral creates spirals as it grows. NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Our Deepwater Backyard: Exploring Atlantic Canyons and Seamounts 2014
Octocorals, cup corals and anemones share a rock at 1,459 meters depth in Hendrickson Canyon. NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Our Deepwater Backyard: Exploring Atlantic Canyons and Seamounts 2014
Hydromedusa have red-tinted stomachs to camouflage any bioluminescence exhibited by their prey. NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Our Deepwater Backyard: Exploring Atlantic Canyons and Seamounts 2014
A deep-sea red crab hangs onto a bubblegum coral with a skate egg case hanging on as well. NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Our Deepwater Backyard: Exploring Atlantic Canyons and Seamounts 2014
Cup corals and a sea star sit a mile underwater at Heezen Canyon. Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, 2013 Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition
What looks like a single organism is actually a colony of highly specialized individual animals called dandelion siphonophores. Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Our Deepwater Backyard: Exploring Atlantic Canyons and Seamounts 2014
A rarely observed deep-water skate sits on the seafloor of Veatch canyon in 2013. Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, 2013 Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition

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