Water Log 28.3, November, 2008

Republican Senators Halt President Bush's Plan for Marine Sanctuaries in Gulf

Timothy M. Mulvaney, J.D.

An official of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) recently announced that Republican senators have halted President George W. Bush’s proposal to create multiple marine sanctuaries in the Gulf of Mexico.

Background
In July of 2006, President Bush signed a proclamation protecting over 140,000 square miles of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the surrounding waters. Environmentalists hoped that President Bush’s initiative in protecting the waters off Hawaii could serve as a model for increased marine conservation programs. A plan for a similar sanctuary in Gulf waters would restrict fishing and oil drilling in certain deep-water reefs and coral banks that scientific research shows are essential to the sustenance of the Gulf’s marine ecosystem.

The proposal is known as “Islands in the Stream,” in light of the biological links between submerged hard bottom features, or “islands,” that serve as bastions for marine life but currently are managed in isolation. The islands are connected by the natural looping movement of water, or “the stream,” in the Gulf. Certain links in the island chain lie off the coasts of Mexico and Belize, suggesting that international partnerships could strengthen the preservation of any established sanctuary.

Opposition Prevails for the Present Time
On November 7, 2008, William Causey, a southeast regional director for the National Marine Sanctuary Program organized under NOAA, announced that progress on the proposal had come to a standstill.1 Causey noted the intense opposition from the fishing industry and GOP senators representing Gulf states.

For example, in April, Alabama’s Republican senators, Richard Shelby and Jeffrey Sessions, as well as Sen. David Vitter, R-La., advised the executive branch that they strongly objected to the sanctuary proposal, in light of potential effects on both fishing and the drilling industry.2 Opponents of the sanctuary suggest that preserved areas could hold valuable oil and natural gas reserves. Sen. Vitter has asserted that he would oppose any similar sanctuary proposal by any future administration.

Causey stressed that the protected areas would be small and the measures would result in little or no change in existing fishing and extraction practices, particularly in light of some prohibitions already in place.3

It remains to be seen whether the administration of President-Elect Barack Obama will renew a marine sanctuary proposal in an effort to preserve the ecology of the Gulf amidst strong opposition from commercial industries.
 
Endnotes:
1.  See Cain Burdeau, “GOP Senators Ice Bush’s Marine Sanctuaries in Gulf,” A.P., found in, e.g., San Francisco Chronicle, A4, November 8, 2008.
2.  Id.
3.  Id.