Alliance of Communities for Sustainable Fisheries
256 Figueroa Street #1, Monterey, CA 93940
www.alliancefisheries.com

            For the past 30 years, the Pacific Council has been developing and refining fishery management regulations that conserve local fishery resources for the long term.  Many fisheries are under very tight regulation because of reductions in the size of certain stocks.  Further restrictions are incorporated from other federal environmental statutes--such as the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and many others—during the development of fishery management regulations.  We believe these actions are adequate to protect the fishery resources found within the Monterey Sanctuary.  Moreover, we note that efforts are underway to strengthen the communications between the Pacific Council and those responsible for managing the various marine sanctuaries along the West Coast, and we support these discussions.

            The Magnuson-Stevens Act now clearly (since 1996) provides to the councils the authority to protect habitats and to manage on an ecosystem-wide basis.  The Sanctuary has asserted that they are concerned with ecosystems, not just with individual species, and that only they are concerned with habitats; however, that’s no longer true.  It was true to some degree when the MBNMS was designated in 1992, but not now, and the PFMC has taken concrete actions to protect habitats and ecosystems (i.e., the huge Essential Fish Habitat area.)

            We therefore ask that the adoption of the final regulations for the Monterey Sanctuary reflect that marine fisheries within the Sanctuary are to be regulated pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Act consistently with existing law and the new amendments to the Magnuson-Stevens Act.  We support continuation of the language in the designation document (Article 4, Section 1) that limits the regulatory authority of the Monterey Sanctuary to “aquaculture or kelp harvesting within the Sanctuary.”

            2.         The Davidson Seamount Question.        

            The Alliance does not oppose expansion of the boundaries of the Monterey Sanctuary to include the area around the Davidson Seamount.  However, the regime for regulation of fishing in the ocean area to be so included must not be any different from that just discussed above for fishing generally in the Monterey Sanctuary.

            3.         Authority of the Monterey Sanctuary to Create Marine Protected Areas.

            Considerable discussion has been given to the concept of marine protected areas in the State of California and elsewhere in the United States.  We do not believe that the authority recently given to the Regional Councils in the amended Magnuson-Stevens Act allows the NOAA Marine Sanctuaries Program to create marine protected areas within marine sanctuaries in order to restrict fishing, either directly or indirectly.  We note that the draft management plan for the Monterey Sanctuary contains an element for addressing “bottom trawling effects on benthic habitats.”  We question, given recent Congressional action, whether this should be part of any sanctuary management plan, and suggest it be dropped.  This is exactly the kind of overlapping effort that should not be pursued by the NOAA Marine Sanctuaries Program.