Government Affairs
Marine Reserves in Biscayne National Park
The Issue
Located adjacent to Miami in Biscayne Bay, Biscayne National Park (BNP) is the largest marine park in the National Park system, supporting approximately 10 million angler trips per year. However, park officials have proposed to prohibit recreational fishing in large areas of the park by establishing marine reserves, contrary to the recommendations from the park’s own working group.
Background
As part of updating the park's General Management Plan (GMP), which was last updated in 1983, BNP officials are also updating its Fisheries Management Plan (FMP). According to the park's website, the goal of the FMP is to "manage fish and shellfish within the parks to help ensure that the tradition of fishing can continue for generations to come."
Following a public input period from 2002-2003, the park developed a Working Group, consisting of recreational and commercial fishermen, divers, scientists, and members of the conservation community, which was formed to issue recommendations on the FMP. The Working Group held their sixth and final meeting in October 2004, at which time they finalized their recommendations for the FMP. Primarily due to staff changes, the management plan is still under review.
Even though recommendations from the FMP working group did not include marine reserve areas, park officials have recently proposed implementing marine reserves in BNP as part of the new FMP.
Following a brief public scoping process to receive input on the marine reserve idea, BNP officials released the five draft alternatives to the FMP. While no specific size or spacing guidelines are given for reserves, three of the alternatives provide the possibility for BNP to implement no-fishing reserves. The full draft FMP can be viewed here.
ASA’s Position
While intensive fishing pressure in BNP is clearly an issue that must be addressed in the new GMP, marine reserves are just one tool among the suite of resources available for effective fisheries management, and should be considered only after more conventional and less restrictive management strategies (e.g., size limits, bag limits, quotas, gear restrictions) have failed. The new FMP should address overfishing in BNP while still allowing for public access to public resources via recreational fishing. Given the widespread distribution of recreational fishing that occurs throughout BNP, any marine reserve of significant size would inevitably shut anglers out of favorite fishing areas, keeping anglers off the water, out of the park and diminishing the economic benefit of sportfishing to the local economy. Recreational boating and fishing activities are an important use of the park, and the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) seeks to ensure that these valuable activities remain viable and sustainable within the park.
This concept is also supported by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between BNP and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), which also manages fisheries resources in the park. The memorandum says:
"The FWC and the park agree to seek the least restrictive management actions necessary to fully achieve mutual management goals for the fishery resources of the park and adjoining areas. Furthermore, both parties recognize the FWC’s belief that marine reserves (no-take areas) are overly restrictive and that less-restrictive management measures should be implemented during the duration of this MOU."
The draft FMP was open for public comment through October 6, 2009. Members of the recreational fishing and boating industry sent a joint letter to BNP expressing their concerns with the marine reserve proposal and urging the National Park Service to follow the recommendations of its own working group, which did not include no-fishing zones in its FMP recommendations.
Park officials will next incorporate public comments on the FMP into a draft General Management Plan, which will be released at a future date.
