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Feature Articles
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NOAA seeks comment on proposed MPA terms
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This article is reprinted with permission of Commercial Fisheries News, the Northeast's fishing newspaper for over 30 years, ©2003 Compass Publications Inc. Commercial Fisheries News is published monthly; annual subscriptions are $21.95. To subscribe or request a sample issue: call (877) 263-4496; fax (207) 367-2490; e-mail (cfoster@fish-news.com); or click on the hot link.
SILVER SPRING, MD - Back in 2000, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13158 directing several federal agencies to expand and strengthen a national system of marine protected areas (MPAs).
Since then, there have been serious disagreements among various interest groups as to what exactly MPAs should look like and just how far restrictions on their use should go.
Now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is proposing to define a number of terms used in the executive order, including key words like "lasting" and "protection."
In preparation for proposing a list of MPAs, NOAA, in concert with the Department of the Interior, is first developing an inventory of marine management areas (MMAs), which is basically a list of marine areas where some kind of management regime is already in place.
In a July 23 Federal Register notice requesting comment on its proposed criteria for adding sites to this preliminary list, NOAA emphasized that the inventory will not be a list of proposed MPAs, but "may, at some future date, be used in determining which sites should be placed on the List of MPAs."
Executive Order 13158 defines an MPA as "any area of the marine environment that has been reserved by federal, state, territorial, tribal, or local laws or regulations to provide lasting protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources therein."
In determining which areas to include in the MMA inventory, NOAA is proposing the following terms and definitions.
- Area - A site that has legally defined geographical boundaries. "Generic, broad-based resource management authorities without specific locations" would be excluded.
- Marine - Ocean or coastal waters, including intertidal areas, bays, or estuaries, or "an area of lands under ocean or coast waters."
- Reserved - Reserved would mean that the site was established by and is currently subject to federal, state, commonwealth, territorial, local, or tribal law or regulation. Privately created or maintained marine sites would be excluded from the MMA list.
- Lasting - Protection that is provided for the site "year-after-year" for "at least three months of each year." The site must also have been established with an expectation of, or potential for, permanence. Sites with expiration dates could still be considered if they were continuously protected for at least two years and have a specific mechanism for being renewed.
Areas under temporary protections, such as those subject to emergency fishery regulations through the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act that expire in 180 days and areas that are protected by annual management specifications would be excluded.
- Protection - Protection would mean that the site must have "existing laws or regulations" designed to increase protection for all or part of the natural and submerged cultural resources for "the purpose of maintaining or enhancing the long-term conservation of these resources beyond any general protections that apply outside the site.
Areas closed to "avoid fishing gear conflicts" and "area-based regulations established solely to limit fisheries by quota management or to facilitate enforcement" would be excluded.
- Cultural resources - "Any submerged historical or cultural feature, including archaeological sites, historic structures, shipwrecks, artifacts, and subsistence uses in the marine environment."
Comment
Public comment on these definitions and other criteria being proposed for determining which sites should be included on the MMA inventory list is due on or before Sept. 22.
For more information, call Joseph Uravitch at (301) 713-3155.
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