About 130 miles off the coast of New England, deep in the Atlantic, four undersea mountains rise from the sand alongside three undersea canyons that lead further into the deep.

Roughly the size of Connecticut, this region of the ocean is the only marine national monument in the United States Atlantic Ocean and until today, it's been in danger of being decimated by fishing, climate change and human activity.

Leaders from Mystic Aquarium on Friday joined President Joe Biden at the White House, where the president signed a proclamation restoring protections to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National monument. Protections on these areas — home to whales, sharks, sea turtles and a variety of other wildlife — had been stripped by former President Donald Trump.

Aquarium President and CEO Steve Coan traveled to Washington, D.C., on Friday to join the president as he restored the protections, which will help preserve a region long renowned for its biodiversity; the canyons and seamounts are home to deep-diving sperm whales, critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and deep-sea coral communities, along with a variety of neighbors, such as dolphins and swordfish.

"This is an extremely important moment for all who care about protecting the ocean," Coan said ahead of his trip to the White House.

The aquarium said it's been able to share the rich marine life of the canyons and seamounts with visitors by creating an immersive exhibit that offers an interactive look at the national monument. And it hopes to continue celebrating the monument's biodiversity and promoting its protection.

Coan said the monument provides Mystic Aquarium scientists with a "spectacular 'living laboratory'" that helps them better understand the ocean.

Dr. Peter Auster, a senior research scientist at Mystic Aquarium since 2011, has spent decades studying the soon-to-be-protected region. His work, the aquarium said, was instrumental in having the area designated as a marine national monument by former President Barack Obama.

Auster on Friday described the monument as "an otherworldly diversity of organisms" that he likened to something out of a Dr. Suess book, with vividly colored sponges, newly discovered corals — such as a tall, bright yellow spiral coral — and odd-looking deep-sea fishes. The canyons are deeper than the Grand Canyon and the seamounts are higher than anything east of the Rocky Mountains, he said.

And because the area is mostly undisturbed, scientists can observe all of these creatures in their natural habitat.

"All of the biodiversity makes this one of those rare places both in U.S. waters and global ocean where marine life can play out without human interference," Auster said.

He said the national marine monuments give scientists a chance to learn about how an undisturbed ocean functions.

"There's always something new to discover and describe that helps us piece together how life works on our planet," Auster said. "And the monument gives the science community a place to explore that's undisturbed by human activities, it shows us what the ocean would look like in so many other places if we didn't do so many things."

Outside of the research world, he said it's also important to preserve the monument for all Americans.

"This isn't just a playground for scientists," he said. "The knowledge that we've set this place aside in perpetuity as a gift to the American people, for the conservation of our natural resources, is a national tradition. And the current administration is continuing that grand tradition."

t.hartz@theday.com