The area known as Cashes Ledge — a 550-square-mile patch of federally protected ocean roughly 80 miles off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts — stirs the passions of fishermen, scientists, and conservationists in equal measure.

The region was cordoned off 12 years ago in an effort to rejuvenate declining populations of cod and other prized Atlantic species in the Gulf of Maine, which had been relentlessly overfished during the preceding century. Now, U.S. officials are contemplating re-opening parts of the area to commercial trawling, setting off a heated debate over what parts ought to remain protected — or whether the whole of Cashes Ledge ought to be off limits for good.

Whatever the outcome, one thing is not in dispute: Cashes Ledge encompasses a topography and marine ecosystem unlike any other found in the waters off New England.

“I usually describe it as sea mountains in the middle of the Gulf of Maine,” said Graham Sherwood, a research scientist with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. “It goes from a couple hundred meters deep to just four or five meters, and it presents a really unique habitat right in the center of the Gulf of Maine. We usually think of a gulf or bay as deepening in the middle,” Sherwood added. “But here, 70 miles offshore, you can anchor up and sometimes even see the bottom.”

What can be seen in those sun-bathed shallows — essentially the summits and high plateaus of the undersea mountain range — is not found anywhere else in the Gulf. Colorful kelp forests, anemones, and sponge colonies support a remarkably diverse collection of marine life, from cod and cunner fish to horse mussels and sea stars.

Because their bottom-dragging nets would easily snag and tear on many of these high, jagged ridges, commercial groundfishers have historically avoided areas like Ammen Rock. As a result, marine scientists have come to prize the area as a living laboratory in which to study the Gulf of Maine as it might have appeared prior to the rise of commercial fishing.

Representatives of the fishing industry say they are not interested in fishing areas like Ammen Rock, but that the deeper, muddier depths of the Cashes Ledge protected area ought to be opened for trawling. Sherwood doesn’t necessarily disagree, though he says much more research is needed in order to fully understand, for example, how the flourishing peaks of Ammen Rock nourish and sustain life elsewhere in the surrounding depths.

The key goal, Sherwood said, is figuring out the optimal size and placement of protected areas, so that both fish populations — and the fishing industry — can thrive.

“I think there needs to be a lot more science and research on that,” he said.

— Tom Zeller Jr.

25 September 2014

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Brian Skerry is a photojournalist specializing in marine wildlife and underwater environments. Since 1998 he has been a contract photographer for National Geographic Magazine covering a wide range of subjects and stories. Skerry is a founding fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and explorer-in-residence at the New England Aquarium in Boston. He has spent more than 10,000 hours underwater over the past 30 years.

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