- - Wilderness areas are supposed to be the most pristine,
strictly protected lands in the country.
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- No vehicles of any sort. No construction. Just nature.
Now an environmental group wants to bring that level of protection to the
deep blue sea.
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- The Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental preservation
group formerly known as the Center for Marine Conservation, wants the government
to declare certain coastal waters as ocean wilderness sites. Starting with
selected sites, the conservancy is asking the government agencies that
manage pristine marine habitats to step up their protection.
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- That would mean no shipping or fishing in the water and
no digging or drilling on the ocean floor within designated areas.
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- "The concept 'wilderness,' on land, represents the
absolute highest level of protection that Americans have to describe their
landscape," said Warner Chabot, the conservancy's vice president of
regional operations. "What we're saying is that tradition and history
and that type of vision should also apply to the ocean."
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- The group has suggested starting with six high-profile
sites: the waters around Southern California's Channel Islands; Prince
William Sound and Glacier Bay, both in Alaska; the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands, the Dry Tortugas off Key West, Fla., and the waters around the
San Andres Archipelago, which are off the coast of Nicaragua, but managed
by Colombia. These first six were hand-picked for being well-known and
rich with sea life.
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- "These places are included because they epitomize
the types of places that are needing and deserving of protection,"
said Gregory Helms, of the conservancy.
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- But don't expect to see "No fishing in wilderness
zone" signs quite yet. The conservancy says its goal is not to rope
off all of those coastal sites, which are each hundreds of square miles
in size.
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- Instead, only small parcels of extra-sensitive marine
habitats within each area would be considered wilderness areas, thus off
limits to large boats and drilling.
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- Translated on land, it's not unlike the multiple levels
of protection in national forests, where you can walk along one path and
pass through all degrees of protected areas. Mining companies might be
able to dig in one corner of the forest, while only hikers are allowed
in another. And the term "wilderness," as defined by Congress
in 1964, refers to the places that have the most stringent protections
to retain "primeval character."
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- That's why the conservancy wants that same term applied
to ocean waters, Chabot said - because people understand that "wilderness"
means as natural as it gets.
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- "Basically, there's no easy way to describe how
best to protect the ocean," Chabot said.
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- The five U.S. sites the conservancy has highlighted already
have varying degrees of protection, managed by a host of local and state
agencies and several are overseen by the National Marine Sanctuaries -
a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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- So to get wilderness labels on the books, the conservancy
will begin lobbying those agencies to pinpoint the most fragile areas and
then decide which potentially destructive activities to ban.
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- For instance, the conservancy wants to stop cruise ships
from rumbling through Glacier Bay, oil exploration banned from the Channel
Islands and fishing boats pushed farther away from the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands.
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- Fishermen say they need to be in the loop on any proposals
that could lock them out of prime waters. Tom Gemmell, executive director
of United Fishermen of Alaska, says commercial fishing groups are usually
involved in the decisions on local levels. He views the conservancy's campaign
as an attack on that process
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- "I think the main thing is that they need to talk
to people and not come out and say what areas they think should be blocked
off," he said. "That's not a good way to make friends."
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- He suggested more scientific studies in each of the national
sanctuaries to pinpoint fragile spots with declining fish populations or
unique habitats.
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- Other clean-ocean advocates say they support the underlying
concept behind the Ocean Conservancy's wilderness campaign.
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- American Oceans, another environmental group, also has
called for stepping-up protection around those ocean sites, particularly
to block oil drilling.
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- "I wouldn't go as far as saying that the entire
sanctuary boundaries should be free of fishing, but I think setting up
more marine reserves inside sanctuaries should be a good idea," said
Ted Morton, American Ocean's policy director.
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- Until this campaign, marine reserves have been the most-protected
areas in the ocean. But starting with the six "crown jewels,"
as Helms describes them, the Ocean Conservancy is hoping to make waves
and spark more aggressive protection.
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- "We're not picking favorites," Helms said.
"And we're picking ocean wilderness, not for its benefits to humanity,
but because it's the right thing to do."
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- On the Net: www.oceanconservancy.org www.sanctuaries.noaa.gov/
www.americanoceans.org
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