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National Marine Sanctuaries
National Marine Sanctuaries Act During the 109th Congress, a Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization bill was advanced by Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (H.R. 5018). This bill contained a provision that would have required that any sanctuary regulation concerning the conservation or management of fish or fish habitat within a sanctuary comply with the goals and terms of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the federal law that governs fishing in federal waters. In other words, the Magnuson Act would have become the controlling legal authority in managing a large part of sanctuary ecosystems, and commercial fishing would have been elevated to a mandatory preferred use of the nation’s 13 marine sanctuaries. During the mark-up hearing held in May 2006, Representative Jim Saxton (R-NJ) successfully offered an amendment to strike this provision from H.R. 5018. At the mark-up hearing Chairman Pombo indicated that this issue will be revisited, likely during the reauthorization of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA) which is scheduled to occur in 2007 – 2008. Legislative History of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act MCBI's Bill Chandler and Hannah Gillelan examined the legislative history of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA). The NMSA is up for reauthorization by Congress. It is hoped that MCBI's review of the Act will help catalyze positive change within the National Marine Sanctuaries Program and lead to greater protection within existing and future sanctuaries. In 2004 the "Environmental Law Reporter News & Analysis" published Bill and Hannah's review of the NMSA- "The History and Evolution of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act." Download the full version [PDF] of this study. Download a condensed version [PDF] of this study, titled "The Makings of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act: A Legislative History and Analysis." Information on the 13 National Marine Sanctuaries Thirteen national marine sanctuaries have been designated around the U.S. and its territories. While some people who hear the word “sanctuary” think that these areas are fully protected from all extractive uses, the reality is quite different. The National Marine Sanctuaries Act does not prohibit any types of use, but leaves it up to the individual sanctuaries to determine, through a public process, what activities will be allowed. In order to facilitate understanding of what is or isn’t protected in a sanctuary near you, MCBI has prepared fact sheets on each of the 13 sanctuaries, with information on when they were designated, how large they are, what research is conducted, what endangered and threatened species are present, and what activities are allowed. These are not meant to be comprehensive lists used to determine whether you can go fishing, for example, in a sanctuary, but to give the reader a sense of the completeness, or incompleteness, of the protections provided by individual sanctuaries.
Fact sheets (PDF):
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