FKNMS Management Plan
John Ogden
jogden at jaws.marine.usf.edu
Fri Dec 15 11:13:49 EST 1995
The following Open Letter sent to the Miami Herald and the Key West
Citizen is FYI.
December 14, 1995
An Open Letter to the Commercial Fishermen of the Florida Keys:
As most of you know, this week the Sanctuary Advisory Council (SAC)
of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary finished its task of
reviewing the 10 Action Plans which form the Management Plan of the
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. These were revised over
the past year in a series of community meetings led by SAC members.
The Plan approved by the Council on December 12 will help to insure
that the fragile marine environment of the Keys will sustain and
enrich the lives of future generations. The approved Plan is the
culmination of 4 years of effort on the part of the SAC members who
worked hard to integrate the interests and concerns of their
various constituencies in a complicated, controversial, and
politically-charged task.
Fishermen's interests were ably represented by Tony Iarocci,
Michael Laudicina, SAC Chair Michael Collins, and by the many
fishermen who took valuable time away from their businesses to
attend hearings and meetings and to testify in a constructive
manner on the plan. In fact, it is fair to say that fishermen,
more than any other constituency, defined the Management Plan that
we all hope will be signed by the Governor at the end of 1996.
However, in my opinion the virtual elimination of the Replenishment
Reserves by the organized, disciplined, and effective campaign
against them seriously compromises the intent of the plan to
sustain the harvest of fisheries resources in the future. We need
at least three relatively small, representative Replenishment
Reserves strategically placed in the Upper and Lower Keys and in
the Dry Tortugas. The approved plan eliminated the Upper Keys
Reserve and left the one in the Dry Tortugas in limbo waiting
action by the National Park Service. There is only one effective
Reserve, a sliver of habitat from shore to the reef edge in the
Sambos.
The Reserves are critical to gather baseline data from undisturbed,
unharvested areas so we can assess the impact of harvest and
disturbance in the rest of the Sanctuary. Reserves are also an
experiment, one that the world is watching, to see if small,
strategically placed unharvested areas can provide "replenishment"
to the harvested resources outside its boundaries. There is a
scientific consensus that the Reserves will work, and there are
examples of early success from other countries including New
Zealand, Australia, Kenya, and many Caribbean nations.
You don't have to be told that the Keys fishery resources are
vulnerable; fishermen have seen this from yearly catches. What may
not be well known is that reefs appear to be particularly sensitive
to the removal of the large size classes of snappers and groupers
as well as parrotfishes. This disrupts the balance of the reef and
leads to elimination of corals and to dominance of the reefs by
algae. This is a condition that we are seeing nearly everywhere in
the Keys. The Replenishment Reserves are the only tool that we
have to assess these impacts and to define strategies that will
sustain the fisheries harvest.
I ask each of you to reconsider your position with respect to the
Replenishment Reserves. Talk with each other and with your leaders
and work with NOAA to place at least three Reserves in the
Sanctuary-- one in each of the major representative habitats of the
Keys. If this is accomplished we can continue the cooperative
interaction among the fishing industry, management agencies, and
the science community that has given us a remarkable and exemplary
Management Plan for the marine resources of the Keys.
Thank you for your consideration, congratulations on your very
effective and informative work, and Season's Greetings to all.
Sincerely,
John C. Ogden
Member SAC for Science
John C. Ogden Director Phone: 813/893-9100
Florida Institute of Oceanography Fax: 813/893-9109
830 First Street South St. Petersburg, Florida 33701
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