Florida Keys NMS Final Management Plan ONLINE

[Ben Richards]

Greetings -

    For those who may be interested, all three volumes of the Final
Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement for the Florida Keys
National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) are now available as an on-line .pdf
document at http://www.fknms.nos.noaa.gov/regs/welcome.html.  Before
downloading and printing, beware that the document and file size are
large.

    The purpose of the Management Plan for the FKNMS is to ensure the
sustainable use of the Keys' marine environment by achieving a balance
between comprehensive resource protection and multiple, compatible uses
of the resources of the Florida Keys. Resources in the FKNMS are
threatened by a variety of direct and indirect impacts.  Direct impacts
include vessel groundings, propeller dredging of seagrasses (over 30,000
acres of seagrasses have been impacted by vessel propellers),
overfishing, fishing gear impacts, and diver impacts on coral.  Indirect
impacts include marine discharge of waste products, land based sources
of pollution, and external sources of water quality degradation.  These
and other issues are all addressed in this Management Plan.

    Volume I contains the final and comprehensive Management Plan and
includes  ten action plans which are designed to address the above
mentioned management issues and are composed of management strategies
developed with substantial input from the public, local experts, and the
Sanctuary Advisory Council.  The action plans provide an organized
process for implementing management strategies, including a description
of the activities required, institutions involved, staffing
requirements, and an estimate of the implementation costs.  Following is
a list of the action plans.:

Channel Marking
Education and Outreach
Enforcement
Mooring Buoy
Regulatory
Research and Monitoring
Submerged Cultural Resources
Volunteer
Water Quality
Zoning.

    Volume II of the FMP contains the Environmental Impact Statement for
the Management Plan including the process for selecting the preferred
alternative.  Page 134 provides a brief description of the process used
to develop the no-take zoning plan. This volume also contains the
socioeconomic impact analysis.

Volume III of the FMP is a list of appendices and contains:

The National Marine Sanctuaries Act
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Protection Act
Agreements for the Integrated management of the Sanctuary
Revised Designation Document
A summary of the major comments NOAA received on the Draft Plan, and
NOAA's responses to those comments (as well as a list of all who
submitted a written comment on the plan or who testified at one of the
public hearings)
A Costs and Benefits Assessment of the regulations implementing the
plan.

--
Benjamin L. Richards
Webmaster/Research Assistant
NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
P.O. Box 500368
Marathon FL, 33050
(305) 743-2437 x28
ben.richards at noaa.gov

Check out the new and improved web site of the Florida Keys National
Marine Sanctuary
http://www.fknms.nos.noaa.gov