Protect and connect with the ‘Treasure of the Atlantic’

Wild Cumberland is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to the stewardship of Cumberland Island and its Wilderness. As Georgia’s largest barrier island, it features more than 20,000 acres of federally-designated Wilderness and Potential Wilderness.  

A mere 18 miles long, it is home to one of our nation’s largest remaining maritime forests. Its undeveloped shoreline buffers nearly a quarter of our state’s coastline, and approximately one-third of the coastline is contained within the Wilderness Area. It is also designated as critical habitat for many protected species, including ones many of us know and love like the loggerhead sea turtle and piping plover.  

The waters offshore Cumberland Island — from Cape Fear down to Florida — are the only documented calving grounds for the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. More than 300 species of birds rely on Cumberland Island and its Wilderness for a place to rest, refuel or breed.  

Knowing this, it’s easy to understand why Cumberland Island was previously designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. But it’s not the only remarkable area off the Southeastern shoreline.  

The Blake Plateau, which lies 80-200 miles offshore the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, was recently found to house the Earth’s largest-known deep-sea coral habitat. While we’re still discovering more about the plateau’s role in our larger global ecosystem, we do know the full extent of the essential functions it performs for our local ocean and livelihoods.   

The plateau’s corals work with the Gulf Stream to process critical nutrients and pump them back up to the surface. Its floating Sargassum seaweed meadows provide food and shelter for a wide array of valuable marine life — including the loggerhead sea turtle.  

As Wilderness advocates, we respect our interconnectedness — and value restraint. No one thing exists alone; the health and integrity of our Wilderness and marine ecosystems are interdependent.  

The health and stability of the Blake Plateau is critical to the function and integrity of nearby barrier island ecosystems and the thousands of species who depend on them. 

Blake Plateau is particularly important for the future of our deep-sea coral ecosystems; some of its key coral features are in deeper, colder waters and so will likely function as refuges for deep-sea corals as our ocean temperatures increase. 

The Southeast is among the U.S. regions with the fewest marine protections — less than one percent of the waters in this region are strongly protected. Yet we know that Georgia holds hundreds of thousands of acres of important coastal wetlands. Tourism, recreation, fishing, and seafood industries in Georgia and South Carolina employ nearly 79,000 people and contribute more than $4.2 billion to the states’ economies. A recent poll conducted by Impact Research found strong support for Blake Plateau protections from over 80% of likely voters in Georgia and coastal South Carolina across the political spectrum. 

Now is the time for us to conserve the Blake Plateau. We are calling on Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to encourage the White House to establish permanent protections for this invaluable place before it’s too late.  It deserves strong, durable conservation measures that prohibit commercial extractive activities and protect essential ecosystem services and biological diversity. Our future depends on it.