Plan Calls for Expanding Gulf of Mexico Reef Sanctuary

[Judi Lynn]

Plan Calls for Expanding Gulf of Mexico Reef Sanctuary

A proposed plan could expand a protected reef sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico

By Cain Burdeau

http://media.nbcdfw.com/images/652*367/100813+od+turtle.jpg

A federal marine sanctuary protecting coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico could grow five times in size under a plan being proposed to safeguard an even larger area of the Gulf from scavengers looking for historic shipwrecks, ships dropping anchor, commercial fishing and oil and gas drilling.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants to enlarge the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary from 56 square miles to cover 280 square miles.

The sanctuary, first established in 1992, includes the northernmost coral reefs in the continental United States. A series of reefs, sitting atop salt dome sea mounts, are found along the rim of the Continental Shelf between about 70 miles and 150 miles off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana.

"That's essentially where the activity is happening," said G.P. Schmahl, the sanctuary superintendent. "They are hot spots for fish habitat, fish spawning."

More:
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Plan-Calls-for-Expanding-Gulf-of-Mexico-Reef-Sanctuary-291165761.html

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Good news and bad news for coral reefs

(Please note, NSF press release. Copyright concerns are nil.)

https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=134125&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Good news and bad news for coral reefs[/font]
[font size=4]There's good news related to marine protected areas, but bad news related to loss of coral cover[/font]

February 9, 2015

[font size=3]Some good news for coral reefs: In 2014, President Obama expanded the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the central Pacific from about 87,000 square miles to 308,000 square miles. The Monument "is the largest marine protected area in the world and an important part of the most widespread collection of marine life on the planet under a single country's jurisdiction," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

This area sustains a diversity of species, including some of the most pristine coral reefs in the world, as well as a diversity of fish species, shellfish, marine mammals, seabirds, land birds, insects and vegetation not found anywhere else.

Fishing, energy exploration and other activities are prohibited in the Monument. Among the Monument's protected corals are expansive shallow coral reefs and deep coral forests, including some corals that are 5,000 years old.

The expansion of the monument is promising in light of benefits that may be provided by marine protected areas (MPAs). An MPA is a coastal or offshore marine area that is managed to protect natural and/or cultural resources.

In the accompanying video, Paul Sikkel, of Arkansas State University, discusses some of the possible successes of the MPA system in the Philippines. This system was developed back in the early 1970s, when reef fisheries were left virtually unmanaged, and destructive fishing practices, often organized by large commercial fishing companies, ran rampant throughout the Philippines--a cluster of 7,107 islands that harbors more than 1,700 reef species and about 9 percent of global coral reef area.

To help protect its marine resources, the Philippines established at least 985 MPAs covering almost 5 percent of coastal municipal waters. To a large degree, the Philippine MPAs are now co-managed by local communities and local governments along with the national government. This partial de-centralization of authority helps give responsibility for MPA management to those who depend on their ecological health the most: coastal communities.

…

In the accompanying video, Sikkel also discusses a new mechanism that may be damaging coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean. Sikkel identified this potential mechanism through his National Science Foundation-funded research on the relationships between parasites and their host fishes in Caribbean reefs.

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(Video here: https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_videos.jsp?cntn_id=134125&media_id=77945&org=NSF )

[hatrack]

2. Now with extra oil and Corexit!