Stellwagen Bank Final EIS and Management Plan 



Page 4 



PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 



decisionmaking in national marine sanctuaries; 



A. Authority for Designation 



Title III of the Marine Protection, Research and 

 Sanctuaries Act of 1972, 16 U.S.C. 1431 et seg., as 

 amended (MPRSA) (the Act), authorizes the 

 Secretary of Commerce to designate discrete marine 

 areas of special national significance as national 

 marine sanctuaries. The purpose is to promote 

 comprehensive long-term management of their 

 conservation, recreational, ecological, historical, 

 research, educational, or aesthetic values. National 

 marine sanctuaries may be designated in those areas 

 of coastal and ocean waters, the Great Lakes and 

 their connecting waters, and submerged lands over 

 which the United States exercises jurisdiction, 

 consistent with international law. National marine 

 sanctuaries are built around the existence of 

 distinctive natural and cultural resources whose 

 protection and beneficial use require comprehensive 

 planning and management. The National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 

 administers the National Marine Sanctuary Program 

 through the Sanctuaries and Reserves Division 

 (SRD), in the Office of Ocean and Coastal 

 Resource Management (OCRM). 



3. Enhance pubUc awareness, understanding, and 

 wise use of the marine environment through 

 public interpretive, educational, and recreational 

 programs; and 



4. Facilitate, to the extent compatible with the 

 primary objective of resource protection, 

 multiple uses of national marine sanctuaries. 



C. Terms of Designation 



Section 304(a)(4) [16 U.S.C. 1434(a)(4)] of 

 MPRSA provides that as a condition for estabUshing 

 a national marine sanctuary, the Secretary of 

 Commerce must set forth the terms of the 

 designation. The terms must include: (a) the 

 geographic area included within the proposed 

 Sanctuary; (b) the characteristics of the area that 

 give it conservation, recreational, ecological, 

 historical, research, educational or aesthetic value; 

 and (c) the types of activities that will be subject to 

 regulation in order to protect those characteristics. 

 The terms of the designation may only be modified 

 by the same procedure through which the original 

 designation was made. 



B. Mission and Goals of the National Marine 

 Sanctuary Program 



D. Status of the National Marine Sanctuary 

 Program 



In accordance with Title III of the MPRSA, the 

 mission of the National Marine Sanctuary Program 

 is to identify, designate, and comprehensively 

 manage nationally-significant marine areas, based 

 on the criteria noted above. National marine 

 sanctuaries are estabhshed for the long-term 

 benefit, use and enjoyment by the pubhc. To meet 

 these objectives, the following National Marine 

 Sanctuary Program goals have been estabhshed: 



1. Enhance resource protection through 

 comprehensive and coordinated conservation 

 and management tailored to specific resources 

 that complements existing regulatory 

 authorities; 



2. Support, promote, and coordinate scientific 

 research on, and monitoring of, the site-specific 

 marine resources to improve management 



Thirteen national marine sanctuaries have been 

 estabhshed since the Program's inception in 1972 

 (Figure 1): 



• The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary serves 

 to protect the wreck of the Civil War ironclad, 

 U.S.S. MONITOR. It was designated in January 

 1975, and is one square nautical mile in 

 diameter. The Sanctuary is located 16 miles 

 southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 



• The Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary was 

 designated in December 1975, and provides 

 protection and management to a 100 square- 

 nautical-mile area of tropical coral reefs south of 

 Miami, Florida. The Sanctuary is a seaward 

 extension of the John Pennekamp State Coral 

 Reef Park. 



