Stellwagen Bank Final EIS and Management Plan 



Page 127 



PART FOUR: ENVIRONMENTAL AND 

 SOCIOECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF 

 SANCTUARY DESIGNATION 



Section I: Environmental Consequences of 

 Alternatives 



In selecting appropriate institutional, boundary, 

 management and regulatory alternatives for the 

 Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA 

 evaluated the environmental consequences of their 

 implementation. This section discusses these 

 consequences. 



A. Status Quo Alternative 



Under the status quo alternative, no 

 implementation of the Congression2Ll designation 

 would occur. In addition to the prohibition on 

 mining of sand and gravel resources within the 

 Sanctuary mandated by the Congressional 

 designation (P.L. 102-587, §2202), other existing 

 Federal and State authorities would be reUed upon 

 for long-term protection and management of the 

 Stellwagen Bank area and its resources. Existing 

 resoiu-ce protection and management authorities, 

 however, are generally mandated to manage single 

 species or areas of particular human activities. 

 Apart from the efforts of some private 

 organizations, there is very httle potential under 

 existing management authorities for education/ 

 interpretive activities addressing the Stellwagen 

 Bank area. Likewise, scientific studies involving the 

 Bank area generally are focused on individual 

 species or human activities. While the data 

 resulting from these studies are unquestionably 

 useful, there are limited mechanisms for 

 coordinating and disseminating these data to 

 decisionmakers who must address the multiple 

 facets of ocean system management. Existing 

 mechanisms also do not provide for the long-term 

 monitoring and assessment of biological and other 

 trends occurring in the Stellwagen Bank system. 

 Such assessment of resources and environmental 

 conditions is critical to determinations on both the 

 adequacy of current regulatory and management 

 schemes, and on the specific regulatory and 

 management needs for this system. The status quo 

 alternative would leave to chance coordination 

 among research, education, and management 



institutions. 



Significant gaps in the protection of the overall 

 Stellwagen Bank system would remain, due to the 

 structure of single-resource management or 

 individual human activity management authorities. 

 These gaps have become more visible as the results 

 of real or potential human activities have been 

 identified. There is little question that human 

 activities directly involving the Stellwagen Bank and 

 its resources will increase in the future, and existing 

 authorities may well lose their abiUty to fimction at 

 full effectiveness. As both human uses and 

 individual agency mandates increase, so too does 

 the potential for overlapping and confusing 

 jurisdictional authorities. There is presently no 

 single institutional entity with the abiUty to facihtate 

 confUct resolution; given the variety and level of 

 human uses, such a presence would greatly enhance 

 overall system protection. 



The Commonwealth of Massachusetts's Ocean 

 Sanctuaries Program is primarily a regulatory 

 mechanism available to control human activities 

 occurring within designated areas. The Program 

 does not, however, attempt to inform the public 

 about the need to protect these areas, nor does it 

 engage in long-term monitoring and research 

 necessary for appropriate management of these 

 areas. 



The Massachusetts Bays Program, initiated in 

 1988 by the Commonwealth (and now progressing 

 in cooperation with the Environmental Protection 

 Agency, through its National Estuary Program), is 

 primarily focused on the development of a 

 comprehensive conservation and management plan 

 for the Bays areas. There are similar objectives 

 between this Program and the National Marine 

 Sanctuary Program, and thus the potential exists for 

 a natural link between programs to achieve a 

 coordinated, comprehensive, and long-term 

 management scheme for the entire Massachusetts 

 Bay/Cape Cod Bay/Stellwagen Bank ecosystem. 

 Without Sanctuary designation, however, there will 

 be Httle attention directed at the Stellwagen Bank 

 environment, which is immediately adjacent to the 

 Bays areas, and directly influences it. 



Thus, the environmental consequences of not 



