Ocean Zoning in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary: Part II

The following are excerpts from a letter written by the NOAA employee who runs the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, April 15, 2008, a copy appended hereto:

— NOAA to superimpose MPA’s on the Monterey National Marine Sanctuary

“As you recall from my presentation at the February 15, 2008 meeting of the Sanctuary Advisory Council (SA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) has decided to move forward with a process to propose marine protected areas (MPAs) in federal waters of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS or Sanctuary).

— NOAA states that MPA’s are a traditional tool for ocean zoning:

“Marine zones, such as MPA’s that offer protections complementing those currently afforded to the Sanctuary as a whole, are tools of spatial management. Marine zones are not a new endeavor …”

— NOAA states that fishery-based MPA’s are not sufficiently protective.

“The fishery based MPA’s protect some economically important species and their associated habitats, but do not adequately protect other non-economically important species or habitats.”

–NOAA’s actions to super impose an overly restrictive MPA regime over the most protective of all marine regulatory programs, the criteria in the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, were opposed by a wide range of stakeholders.

CRE demonstrated in a subsequent article on this website that NOAA’s action would indeed create the problems identified by the Alliance of Communities for Sustainable Fisheries in 2006.