Bonaire lovers help the coral and sponges.
I'm writing to tell you about an important development in our fight to protect deep-sea corals from the destructive fishing practice known as "bottom trawling" -- and to ask for your help.
We at Oceana have filed a "petition for rulemaking" with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), requesting them to put regulations in place that would provide strong protections for deep-sea coral and sponge habitats. NMFS has opened our petition for public comment, which means they are waiting to see if the public thinks it's a good idea or not. This is your chance to tell NMFS that protecting deep-sea corals is an issue you care about!
Take Action: Tell the Director of NMFS' Office of Habitat Conservation to Support Oceana's Petition for Rulemaking!
The regulations we propose in the petition are based around the principle of "first, do no harm" -- our goal is to ensure that coral protection is a top priority for government and the industry, rather than an afterthought.
Here's how we propose to do it:
We're asking NMFS to block trawling in areas where we know deep-sea corals exist;
We're asking them to put a system in place to watch for evidence of corals in places where trawling is taking place, and, if such evidence turns up, to check the area for corals and block trawling if any are found there;
We're asking them to block trawling anywhere where no trawling has occurred in at least three years until those regions can be mapped for corals, since these untrawled regions are very likely to be coral-rich; and
We're asking them for stiffer penalties for violations and increased funding for programs to locate and map coral concentrations on the sea floor.
Taken together, these proposals would mean that it would be up to the bottom trawlers to explain why they should be able to destroy ancient and fragile corals, rather than it being up to coral defenders -- up to you and me -- to explain why they should be preserved. And that would be a dramatic change for the better in our ocean policy.
As I mentioned above, NMFS has now opened our petition for public comment. They are watching to see if there is sufficient public support for our proposals to justify moving forward with them. Your comments to NMFS will help decide whether they heed our call to stand up and protect corals or not!
The deadline to submit comments is August 13, 2004 -- so don't wait, get your comment in today:
Take Action: Tell the Director of NMFS' Office of Habitat Conservation to Support Oceana's Petition for Rulemaking!
Thanks for standing with us as we make the case to the government that corals are worth protecting!
For the oceans,
Dave Allison
Director, Campaign to Stop Destructive Trawling
Oceana
Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
Mr. Rolland Schmitten
Below is the sample letter:
Subject: DSC Petition: Please adopt the proposed rule protecting deep sea corals and sponges
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
I am writing to urge you to adopt the rule that is requested for protecting deep sea corals as set out in 69 Fed. Reg. 32991 (June 14, 2004). Coral and sponge habitats are too vulnerable and valuable -- for ocean health and potentially for human pharmacuticals -- to allow bottom trawling fishing vessels to destroy them.
The proposed rule would provide the most reasonable protection from damage to living sponges and corals while having the least harmful impact on the economic wellbeing of existing fisheries and fishing communities.
Thank you for considering my comments.
Take Action!
Instructions:
Click here to take action on this issue or choose the "Reply to Sender" option on your email program.
Tell-A-Friend:
Tell your friends to give their comments, too -- the more feedback NMFS receives, the more likely it is that they will pay attention!
Tell-a-Friend!
What's At Stake:
As you know, we at Oceana have been campaigning against bottom trawling for some time now. That campaign has now reached a critical moment, though, which is why we need your help!
On March 24, we submitted a "petition for rulemaking" to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). (This is a document that informs a Federal agency that we believe it should issue a regulation to cover a specific issue; such petitions are one of the ways that new regulations are created.)
Read Oceana's Petition for Rulemaking on Deep-Sea Coral and Sponge Habitat (PDF format)
Read NMFS' summary of the petition
Read the announcement of the proposed rule in the Federal Register
Our petition cited the damage that is being done to sensitive deep-sea coral and sponge habitat by bottom trawling, and asked NMFS to issue a regulation with these provisions:
Identify, map, and list all known areas containing high concentrations of deep sea coral and sponge habitat;
Designate all known areas containing high concentrations of deep-sea coral and sponge habitat both as "essential fish habitat" (EFH) and "habitat areas of particular concern" (HAPC), and close these areas to bottom trawling;
Identify all areas not bottom trawled within the past three years, and close these areas to bottom trawling;
Monitor bycatch in areas that are currently being bottom trawled, and, if bycatch totals indicate the presence of deep-sea corals and sponge habitat, close these areas to bottom trawling until they can be mapped to see if there are indeed corals or sponges there, and protected if there are;
Start a program to proactively identify new areas containing high concentrations of deep-sea coral and sponge habitat, and and close them to bottom trawling when found;
Increase monitoring coverage of areas where deep-sea coral and sponge habitat are likely to be found;
Increase enforcement and penalties for violations of areas closed to bottom trawling; and
Fund research to identify, protect, and restore damaged deep-sea coral and sponge habitat.
According to the regulatory process, when they receive a petition such as this, a Federal agency such as NMFS must make it public (through publication in the Federal Register) and give the public a chance to comment on its merit. This prevents good ideas from falling into a bureaucratic "black hole".
The comment period for our petition is underway. NMFS is watching to see if there is public interest in support of our proposed rule. If that support exists, they'll be more likely to take it seriously, and to take action to protect deep-sea corals -- and that would be a tremendous victory for the oceans!
You can submit your comments to NMFS by e-mail using this form, or by postal mail by sending them to this address:
Mr. Rolland A. Schmitten
Director, Office of Habitat Conservation
NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
F/HC
1315 East-West Highway
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Comments submitted by mail must be received by August 13, 2004 -- so if you're going to go that route, don't wait until the last minute!
Campaign Expiration Date:
August 14, 2004
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By jason thomas (BonaireTalker - Post #66) on Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - 1:48 pm: 
