Mystic ― Mystic Aquarium hosted one of two public sessions seeking input on a proposed management plan for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument on Tuesday.

Approximately 30 members of the public attended the event, held by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The public session is part of the agencies’ process to develop a management plan for the long-term care and preservation of the monument, located 135 miles southeast of Cape Cod. President Barack Obama designed the monument in 2016.

Marine Monument Superintendent Brittany Peterson explained Tuesday that the plan will include priorities and goals for management of the monument, as well as outline methods to manage and preserve the ecosystem, marine life and resources found there. She asked for input on conservation, exploration, education, public engagement and research.

Dr. Peter Auster, senior research scientist at the aquarium, discussed some of the discoveries and contributions made by studies in the first and only national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean.

“The benefits of monument protection, obviously focus on biodiversity conservation,” he said, adding, “this would be the only fully protected area in the U.S. Atlantic, and can serve as a reference for climate impact studies and would be the only entanglement free zone in the entire U.S. Atlantic. These really are magical places.”

Richard Fuka of the Rhode Island Fisherman’s Alliance was one of a handful of commercial fishermen in attendance. He said he was there to advocate for loosening a ban on commercial fishing within the monument, and allowing stakeholder input on the ban, as well as engaging commercial fishing and lobstering operations in the research going on at the monument.

“The fishing industry has always been the perfect stewards of the ocean,” Fuka said, adding that he hopes the process to create the plan will accept input from all stakeholders.

He said the fishing industry can prove that it is not destructive to the monument and its ecosystem, and postulated that many biologists would agree.

He also said he was choosing to be optimistic since the commercial fishing ban is not complete until 2023 when lobstering will no longer be allowed within the monument. Until then, he believes there is a chance to change policies and regulations on commercial fishing.

Variations of his perspective were echoed in breakout sessions where a few attendees suggested using commercial fishermen and lobstermen to gather data outside the boundaries of the monument, where there are fewer restrictions on human activity, to compare to data from within the tightly-regulated monument.

The data could then be used to determine if commercial fishing could be reimplemented, or if all fishing, including recreational, should be banned in the monument area.

The common suggestions among the small groups were that funding for care, research, enforcement of laws within the monument, and implementation of the plan for stewardship should be a priority.

Additionally, attendees mentioned that collaborations and long term partnerships with educational institutions, research foundations, smaller research institutions and other government agencies should be a priority, and a research coordinator position should be included as part of the final plan.

Furthermore, many said discharge from marine and submarine vehicles should be banned within the monument, and the plan should include working with the Department of Defense to include military boats and ships in the discharge ban.

The final plan, expected to be released next September, will not include uses such as commercial fishing, use as an energy, oil, gas or mineral resource, introduction of new species or altering the topography of the monument beyond maintenance of undersea cables or anchoring research equipment.

The comment period will be open until the end of January, and a draft plan will be available for public input next summer.