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Introduction This is the story of a twenty-five-year-long effort to protect a biologically productive marine area in Massachusetts Bay known as Stellwagen Bank. But first a word of caution. To paraphrase the old saw about the making of laws and sausage, those interested in the marine environment and the greater public good may not want to read on, for the effort to protect Stellwagen Bank as a national marine sanctuary has been a largely unsuccessful process, leaving this observer to wonder if current laws and the people responsible for implementing them are capable of solving the crisis facing America’s oceans.1 Twenty-five years ago, when concerned citizens and political leaders first recognized that something needed to be done to protect the coastal waters of Massachusetts, mineral extraction, pollution, habitat loss, collapsing fisheries , marine mammal disturbance, and urbanization all threatened Stellwagen. Today, the threats are much the same—only greater—with the addition of potential ecological turmoil caused by global warming. This is not to say that some progress has not been made. In the context of this small book, the cleanup of Boston Harbor, once considered to be the most polluted harbor in the nation, has been miraculous and awakened tens of thousands, if not millions , to the wonders of the marine environment. Indeed, throughout New England, public access to the ocean and awareness and concern for its health have never been greater. Still, the crisis grows. In its 2003 report to the nation, the Pew Oceans Commission attributed the crisis not just to the usual list of problems for which some faltering remedies are in place, but to “a failure of both perspective and governance. We have failed to conceive of the oceans as our last public domain, to be managed holistically for the greater public good in perpetuity.”2 The commission, which was chaired by Leon Panetta (who championed the cause of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in the 1980s), went ontoobservethattheprincipallawsthataresupposedtoprotectcoastalzones, endangered marine mammals, ocean waters, and fisheries were enacted thirty years ago “on a crisis by crisis, sector by sector basis.” Furthermore, most of xiv Introduction those laws, dated and inadequate as they may be, have been under constant assault by a series of presidents and Congresses. As this book goes to press, the Bush administration has issued a ruling that would relieve federal agencies of some of the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, and Congress has for the umpteenth time failed to reauthorize the Marine Mammal Protection Act. One of those early environmental building blocks was Title III of the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA), also known as the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA), signed into law on October 23, 1972, by President Richard Nixon (see appendix B for the complete text of the act).3 The mission of the National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP) is to identify, designate, and comprehensively manage the nation’s system of marine protected areas for the long-term benefit, use, and enjoyment of the public.4 Though nominated in 1982, it was not until 1992 that an 842-square-mile area over and around Stellwagen Bank was designated as a national marine sanctuary (see appendix D). Ten years in the making, and as this study concludes, fifteen years in the unmaking. Once envisioned as a key tool for protecting and managing the ocean, to date only thirteen sanctuaries have been created, representing less than 0.5 percent of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, and since 2000 there has been a congressional moratorium on the creation of any new sanctuaries (see appendix C).5 Several sanctuaries, notably one in the Florida Keys and California ’s Channel Islands, have set aside marine reserves where most human activity is prohibited, but for the most part marine sanctuaries continue to be used intensively. AsthestoryofStellwagenBankillustrates,someoftheunderlyingpremises of these laws—including the National Marine Sanctuaries Act itself—may be dated, while their administration is in need of major reform. That reform surely must begin with the removal of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from under the shadow of the Department of Commerce and with the creation of an independent oceans agency—a recommendation first made in 1969 by the Stratton Commission but rejected by President Nixon as a matter of political expedience (see chapter 3). TheStellwagenBankstoryiscomplicatedbytherealitiesofgeography.First, it is out of sight of land, and for most citizens and politicians of the region, out of mind. Second, it is part of the larger...

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