PORTLAND — White House officials said Friday that President Barack Obama is not considering an underwater mountain in the Gulf of Maine for designation as a national monument, delighting commercial fishermen and frustrating environmentalists.

Environmental groups want Obama to permanently protect Cashes Ledge, an underwater mountain and offshore ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine. Cashes Ledge is “not under consideration for a designation at this time,” a spokesperson for the White House Council on Environmental Quality told The Associated Press on Friday.

The proposal to protect Cashes Ledge drew heavy opposition from commercial fishing groups who saw the move as an attack on their industry and livelihood. Obama’s decision not to consider Cashes for protection was motivated by “a lack of scientific information to support such a designation,” said Associated Fisheries of Maine president Terry Alexander.

“Commercial fishermen in New England face continuous regulatory uncertainty, so it is a relief to know that there is one less restriction on fishing to worry about,” Alexander said.

Marine monument status is reserved for areas of outstanding scientific, cultural, conservation and aesthetic value. President George W. Bush established four and Obama expanded one, the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Environmental groups tried to make the case that Cashes Ledge deserves to be the first such monument in the Atlantic Ocean. The area, about 80 miles off the coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, is home to a kelp forest and provides habitat to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Environmentalists also seek to protect the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts, a chain of undersea formations about 150 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. That proposal appeared to remain in play on Friday.