November 9, 2004Stellwagen Sanctuary Advisory Council Gives Priority to
Ecosystem Collaborative Research
A panel charged with making recommendations to the federal government
concerning the future management of an 842 square mile area in Massachusetts
Bay, known as the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS), gave its
highest priority last week to encouraging collaborative research between
fishermen and scientists to “understand ecosystem structure and function.”
The panel also placed high priority on promoting incentives for fishermen and
others to approach, stand by, and disentangle whales. Fishermen heralded the
decision to place greater emphasis on a better scientific understanding of
the area’s ecosystem so that future regulatory and management decisions will
have a sound scientific basis. In this way, marine resources can be
effectively protected from a wide array of potential threats ranging from
ocean dumping to mining and cable laying to point and non-point pollution.
The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council (SAC) met
on Friday, November 5th, in Boston, to finalize and prioritize sub-committee
recommendations for the development of a SBNMS 5-year management plan. The
Sanctuary Superintendent will now take the recommendations and use them to
draft a proposed management plan that will be made available for public
review this spring.
The Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership (MFP) maintains that scientific
research must precede policy development in order to generate scientifically
defensible, equitable and credible Sanctuary policies. In a broader
application, the approach given highest priority by the SAC would contribute
valuable scientific information to support a shift by other agencies away
from single species management to a multi-species management regime for
fisheries. “We do not want the Stellwagen Sanctuary to ever manage
fisheries,” MFP Executive Director David Bergeron said, “The New England
Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service already
do that, but better science would be very useful for these agencies in their
decision-making. A better understanding of the Stellwagen ecosystem will
furthermore strengthen the Sanctuary’s ability to fulfill its current charge
to protect the ecological integrity of the area from a host of threats.”
Fishermen have been wary of some stakeholders who proposed closing areas
to fishing in the Sanctuary for research and conservation purposes. At the
core of this issue is the promise made to fishermen when the Stellwagen
Sanctuary was created in the early 1990s that fishing would never be
prohibited within the Sanctuary. To address this matter, the SAC voted to
create a special working group that will include fishermen, scientists, and
environmentalists to study existing fisheries regulations and closures before
any additional proposals might be discussed. Bergeron said that this is
acceptable as long as the Sanctuary works with fishermen and scientists to
conduct the necessary research prior to making policy decisions. Twenty-two
percent of the Sanctuary is already off limits to gillnet and mobile gear
fishing and numerous rules and closures are in place to protect marine
mammals including whales.
Bergeron views the Stellwagen process with guarded optimism. “We will be
able to continue to address all issues in a constructive and methodical
manner if we work together. There has been a refreshing level of cooperation
among participants on certain important topics to establish an agenda based
on cooperation rather than on confrontation. We hope that this continues. The
SAC has handed the Sanctuary everything they need to draft a plan that
successfully supports their mandated charter to conduct research and
undertake public outreach and education.”
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