Wondrous Ocean Place of Sperm Whale Canyons and Blue Water Seamounts

Three times I have visited the deep sea canyons far off of New England's shore and every time I observed sperm whales there. For Americans designation of this place as a monument is as appropriate as it was on January 11, 1908 when President Roosevelt made more than 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon area into a national monument. He declared: "Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is.  You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.

While eagles soar over the Grand Canyon, today, sperm whales dive the canyons of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument.  The abundance and diversity of marine wildlife to be observed in this wondrous ocean place is jaw-dropping awesome.  

And yet, the solar cell and computer chip industries want to strip-mine the seamounts for a high tech metal, tellurium.  This key ingredient of two alloys, one combined with bismuth, the other cadmium, used by the respective industries could be mined in California or recovered from discarded solar panels and computer boards. But the profit margins would be less and more people would be employed.

Lobstermen are permitted to work the ribbon of slope water 200 to 500 meters deep that skirts the canyons. Unable to see beneath the sea's face, for the most part, there is no more immediate reassurance of a healthy ocean than a working lobster boat. These deep water trappers with intimate knowledge of this ocean realm are the eyes on the resource. They are the guardians of the canyons.

If you would like to recommend the government choose a national park over the mineral mining of seamounts as the choice that is better for all Americans, please visit the Ocean River Institute's website. Your concerns and opinions, as expressed in your own words, will be heard loud and clear by decision makers. I always get my meetings in Washington because they would much rather hear from constituents about oceans than war, taxes or health care. What's in your ocean and coastal experiences?