Marine sanctuaries: protecting America's oceans oceans

Given enough time, nature has a remarkable ability to heal. Around the world, conservationists are pushing governments to expand ocean protections to give breathing space to marine ecosystems struggling from fishing, shipping and other industries.

In January, U.S. President Joe Biden gave this movement a boost by signing an executive order committing the United States to conserving at least 30% of its land and water by 2030. In May, his administration published a report called America the Beautiful. It described Biden’s challenge as “a call to action to support locally led conservation and restoration efforts” all over America, “wherever communities wish to safeguard the lands and waters they know and love."

Officials are still working on the specifics. Nevertheless, it seems likely that the United States’ network of 15 marine sanctuaries and two national marine monuments will grow.

There are also various other kinds of marine protected areas (MPAs) protecting about 13% of U.S. territorial waters. Combine these with the 17 sanctuaries and monuments managed by the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and 26% of U.S. oceans and Great Lakes have some form of protection.

These areas span about 620,000 square miles, or roughly a fifth of the size of the continental United States. A single monument — the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Pacific — accounts for almost 585,000 square miles of this total, an area more than twice the size of Texas.

Established in 1972 during the Nixon administration, the marine sanctuaries program initially was focused on environmental preservation. It was quickly expanded to include sites of historical significance after a Civil War shipwreck, the USS Monitor, was discovered off North Carolina. At the time, the sanctuaries program was the only federally recognized mechanism for protecting marine areas, so state officials nominated the wreck of the Navy’s first ironclad warship for a designation.

Today, maritime heritage is frequently a cornerstone of proposals for new sanctuaries, even as the program has evolved to also emphasise community stewardship of marine ecosystems.

Maritime Heritage

The only new sanctuary designated under the administration of former President Donald Trump was the Mallows Bay-Potomac River in Maryland, scene of a “Ghost Fleet” of hundreds of wrecks dating from the Civil War to World War One. Sanctuaries at Thunder Bay in Lake Huron and Stellwagen Bank off the coast of Massachusetts also boast significant wrecks. In the Pacific, the vast Papahānaumokuākea National Monument contains a cluster of World War Two warships and aircraft resting on the ocean floor around the Midway Atoll, the site of a major naval battle six months after the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

Shipwrecks that litter the ocean floor serve as time capsules from the past. Often, sunken ships turn into artificial reefs, providing refuge and feeding grounds for many species.

Reef systems

Though maritime heritage has inspired a number of sanctuaries, the primary goal of expanding marine protections is to preserve underwater ecosystems. Coral reefs, in particular, have proven popular sanctuary sites for their ability to support an extraordinary range of species.

Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary off Georgia is home to a “live-bottom” reef — a rocky area with ledges that attract invertebrates, forming a dense carpet of life across the seafloor. The reef is also populated by sharks, crabs, loggerhead turtles and hundreds of fish species.

In the Gulf of Mexico, the striking contours of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary were formed by salt domes pushing up from under the ocean floor, giving the seabed a texture that shelters coral and other animals. The undulating banks also attract sea turtles, whale sharks, manta rays and hammerhead sharks.

The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is the only barrier coral reef in North America and the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world. There were multiple marine sanctuaries in the area prior to 1990, but environmental degradation across the coral reef prompted Congress to designate the 2,800 square miles of the sanctuary. It was expanded slightly in 2001 to contain the Tortugas Ecological Preserve.

The reef is not only an environmental treasure, but also protects nearby communities as well by dampening the impact of storm surges and waves. The sanctuary is also a commercial powerhouse for the region, luring millions of visitors each year. In 2019, the reef was estimated to have contributed to generating $4.4 billion and to supporting 43,000 jobs across the state.

Long-term efforts are being made to protect the reef and ensure its longevity, including efforts to develop coral nurseries and to remove invasive species such as lionfish, which prey on fish that keep corals healthy.

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument dwarfs the nearby Hawaiian islands as well as all other areas managed by the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries by a wide margin.

It was originally created by President George W. Bush in 2006, then was quadrupled to its current size by President Barack Obama. The monument is almost 600,000 square miles in area, but includes less than six square miles (16 square kilometers) of land.

The numerous maritime heritage sites in this wide swath of the Pacific hold the remains of American and British whaling ships, Japanese junks, Hawaiian fishing sampans and many ships and aircraft from the 1942 Battle of Midway.

U.S. marine monuments differ from sanctuaries mostly in how they were created — monuments are designated by presidential proclamation, while sanctuaries are designated by NOAA following an application process, typically launched by members of the local community, followed by a formal nomination and public review.

Past, present and future

Since the marine sanctuaries program was launched almost half a century ago, the pace of creating new sanctuaries has slowed while many existing sanctuaries were expanded. In the last 20 years, there have been four new sanctuaries designated and eight expanded.

Under the Obama administration, the sanctuary program focused on encouraging nominations from local communities keen to manage their nearby waters. Six such proposals have since been accepted for formal consideration by NOAA — shown on the below map as “nominated.” Once NOAA has approved a proposal in principle, a subsequent “designation” exercise takes place, including public consultations and agreeing on management plans. The process can take several years.

The renewed emphasis on community participation has seen several proposals advocating indigenous stewardship of local waters, notably the proposal for the Chumash Heritage Sanctuary off Santa Barbara in California, and the St. George Unangan Heritage National Marine Sanctuary on St. George Island, Alaska.

Patrick Pletnikoff, the mayor of St. George, who is spearheading the island’s push for sanctuary status, summed up the essence of the program when he told Reuters: “We’ll look at this holistically, and try to understand what our responsibilities are: Not only to ourselves, but to our environment and the animal kingdom.”