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U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries. Marine Sanctuaries. National Marine Sanctuary: A federally designated area within U.S. waters that protects specific areas of the marine environment Marine Protected Area:
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Marine Sanctuaries • National Marine Sanctuary: • A federally designated area within U.S. waters that protects specific areas of the marine environment • Marine Protected Area: • Areas where natural and/or cultural resources are given greater protection than the surrounding waters
Marine Sanctuaries • Why do we make it a sanctuary? • Conservation • Recreation • Ecology • History • Culture • Archeology • Science • Education • Aesthetics
Marine Sanctuaries • So what’s the difference between a Marine Sanctuary and a Marine Protected Area? • Marine Sanctuaries are multiple-use marine protected areas, protected under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act • What?? Multiple-use??? • Multiple-use mean the use of land for more than one purpose
Marine Sanctuaries • Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (Ocean Dumping Act) • 1972 • Secretary of Commerce gets to choose a National marine Sanctuary after talking to the heads of involved agencies • Governor can declare it unacceptable
Marine Sanctuaries • Who runs National Marine Sanctuaries? • NMSP • National Marine Sanctuaries Program • This program is a division of NOAA (Yay NOAA!) • There are “14” U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries
Monitor • Feb 30, 1975 • North Carolina • Designated by NOAA to protect the ironclad shipwreck of the USS Monitor • First National Marine Sanctuary • Only sanctuary created to protect a cultural resource rather than a natural one • Size: 1 sq. mile
Key Largo* • Jan 1976 • Florida • Designated by NOAA to protect the portion of barrier reef beyond state waters of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park • Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary subsumed this sanctuary in 1990 • Size: 100 sq. miles
Channel Islands • Oct 1980 • California • Designated by NOAA to protect a confluence of cold and warm water currents with a great abundance of marine life • Expanded in 2007 • Size: 1,658 sq. miles
Gulf of Farallones • Jan 1981 • California • Designated by NOAA to protect an extensive marine habitat and bird colonies • In the waters off San Francisco • Size: 1,255 sq. miles
Looe Key* • Jan 1981 • Florida • Designated by NOAA to protect the unusual and highly important spur and grove reef system • Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary subsumed this sanctuary in 1990 • Size: 5.32 sq. miles
Gray’s Reef • Jan 1981 • Georgia • Designated by NOAA to protect a prime example of South Atlantic hard/live bottom coral habitat • One of the largest near shore live-bottom reefs in the southeastern U.S. • Size: 23 sq. miles
Fagatele Bay • April 1986 • American Samoa • Designated by NOAA to protect an example of a South Pacific, tropical, fringing reef coral system • Smallest and most remote • Only true tropical reef in the program • Size: 0.25 sq. miles
Cordell Bank • May 1989 • California • Designated by NOAA to protect an area where upwelling nutrient-rich deep water supports a flourishing ecosystem • Seamount, discovered by Edward Cordell in 1853 • Size: 526 sq. miles
Florida Keys • Nov 1990 • Florida (duh) • Designated by Congress in response to a series of large vessel groundings • Protects the largest coral barrier reef system in the U.S. (3rd largest in the world) • Expanded in 2001 • Size: 3,674 sq. miles
Flower Garden Banks • Jan 1992 • Texas/Louisiana • Designated by NOAA to protect important coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico • East Flower Garden Banks and West Flower Garden Banks • Expanded in 1996; Stetson Bank • Size: 56 sq. miles
Monterey Bay • Sep 1992 • California • Designated by NOAA to protect a variety of habitats, including kelp forests, shores, and an underwater canyon • Supports one of the world’s most diverse marine ecosystems • Expanded in 2009 • Size: 5,328 sq. miles
Stellwagen Bank • Nov 1992 • Massachusetts • Designated by congress to protect the primary feeding grounds of the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale • Size: 842 sq. miles
Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale • Nov 1992 • Hawaii (duh!) • Designated by Congress to protect calving and breeding grounds of the endangered North Pacific Humpback Whale • One of the world’s most important whale habitat • Size: 1,300 sq. miles
Olympic Coast • May 1994 • Washington • Designated by NOAA as a representative marine and near-shore habitat of the Pacific Northwest • Size: 3,310
Thunder Bay • Jun 2000 • Michigan • Designated by NOAA to protect the collection of nationally significant historic shipwrecks (Shipwreck Alley, Lake Huron) • Only sanctuary in the Great Lakes • About 116 ships • Size: 448 sq. miles
Papahanaumokuakea • June 15, 2006 • Hawaii • Marine National Monument • Largest MPA in the world • Named after the goddess who ‘gave birth’ to the islands in Hawaiian mythology • Size: 140,000 sq. miles
Facts, facts, facts! • First? • Monitor, 1975 • Most recent? • Thunder Bay, 2000 • Closest to Texas? • Flower Garden Banks • In the Great Lakes? • Thunder Bay