The Sanctuaries are supposed to review their management plans every five years and hopefully that time clock on this plan won’t start ticking until this plan is finally implemented.  So far, it’s been several years already since this epic undertaking began.  Most of the Advisory Council members do have other lives to live and other issues unrelated to Sanctuary matters that also demand much of their time.  We would hope, therefore, that this Plan would be sufficient to take care of the Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary for some years to come.

 We are encouraged, in general, by what was approved by the Council to go forward as a plan proposal.  Certainly there were some parts where the fishing industry continues to have reservations as to what will ultimately come of certain proposals.  On those issues, we’ll be skeptical until we see that our fishing heritage on the Bank has been preserved.

 Overall, most of the approved wording has evolved into further examining issues and working with Stellwagen users and fishery managing agencies rather then blunt affirmations that the Sanctuary intends to dive head first into such things as managing fishing.  In this case, the managing of fishing would not mean fish sizes or quotas but rather restricting parts or all of the Sanctuary to fishing in general.  We, obviously, would not support this type of an approach and at least as presently worded, the proposals have not done so.  Even the idea of expanding the size of the Sanctuary to include Jeffrey’s Ledge was placed into the category of needing more discussion.  Such an expansion is not supported by the fishing industry, particularly since we don’t know what a final plan would look like.  The Sanctuary is already larger then the actual Stellwagen Bank itself and we certainly don’t want to see this become the Gulf of Maine Sanctuary.

 Returning to the fisheries management part, it has been well noted that any provision that would involve fisheries managing would require the Sanctuary to request what is  called a change to the “designation document”.  This involves getting the federal Congress to approve such a change.  The National Sanctuary administrators from the Silver Springs headquarters have also noted that this would mean even a longer process and delay  in getting a plan in place.  The fishing industry does not support any provision that would require a change to the designation document and indicated so during the Advisory Council’s meeting.

 We would encourage the Sanctuary administrators to keep the Plan benign and not to insert any wording that would lead to a change to that designation document.  We would also urge  the administrators to not propose measures that could encourage opposition to the plan and threaten the Sanctuary’s very existence itself.  It is, one must remember, a relatively small place at the bottom of a big ocean whose bottom habitat can be viewed by only a few while most of the public can see only a vast expanse of water.  Although compared to a National forest, it is not one that can or will be enjoyed by very many.  It is, therefore, important to keep the support of those who do use the area.  These users are the fishermen, both commercial and recreational, the boaters, the whale watching fleet and other mariners.  They need to be able to use the Bank and the Sanctuary in return needs to have their support.

Banks allow deposits and withdrawals

  Bill Adler, Executive Director               

11/04