JEERS to the Trump Administration for reopening a huge swath of protected sea in the Atlantic Ocean to commercial fishing. The alarming decision reestablishes fishing in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the New England coast, a nearly 5,000-square-mile preserve east of Cape Cod that was created by former President Barack Obama.

Per usual, this Administration cares nothing about the environment other than to exploit it, nickeling and diming it to near-death.

Here are just some of the reasons this area should remain protected, not commercially exploited.

• This is the first and only national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean. Approximately the size of Connecticut, the monument consists of three canyons and four seamounts. These areas contain fragile and largely pristine deep marine ecosystems and rich biodiversity, including important deep sea corals, endangered whales such as sperm, fin and sei whales, sea turtles, other marine mammals and numerous fish species.

• Because of the steep slopes of the canyons and seamounts, oceanographic currents lift nutrients, like nitrates and phosphates, critical to the growth of phytoplankton from the deep to sunlit surface waters. Phytoplankton and zooplankton form the base of the food chain. Aggregations of plankton draw large schools of small fish and then larger animals that prey on these fish, such as whales, sharks, tunas, and seabirds.

This isn’t the first time this Administration targeted this area for exploitation—it rolled back protections in the area in 2020 and President Joe Biden later restored them.

While environmental groups prepare to fight this hideously destructive move, you can help protect the area by not consuming fish products, and by sounding off to your members of Congress. Fishing results in a multitude of pollution also through discarded nets, lines and other equipment.

 The best way to protect fish, and save seabirds, whales, and other marine animals whose lives depend on fish, is to stop consuming fish, which means one’s not competing with whales, sea turtles, birds and marine mammals for their food.