Sarah Fangman, superintendent for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on at the sanctuary.
The restoration blueprint has been a real topic of conversation recently.
Fangman said, “I’ll give a little bit of a background. The sanctuary, as probably a lot of your listeners know, is a place with a lot of complex regulations and jurisdictions. There’s a lot of different entities that have responsibility here, because the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary boundary is within state waters, about 60% of the sanctuary is in state waters, and so as a federal entity, we co manage those state water areas with the state. So that means FWC, hence the interest at this week’s Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meeting. So their meeting, probably the last one before the blueprint is released later this year, so they took the opportunity to outline some areas where there is disagreement between what they recommend and what we are thinking about doing. So one former commissioner (of FWC) suggested, in fact, that the governor should veto the entire thing, if those few issues are not resolved. So that was kind of a big deal. This, I think, of course, would be really unfortunate. It would be a disservice to the thousands of people, probably many of your listeners, who have weighed in on this process, which dates back to 2012. It’s been around for a while, and we have come to agreement on literally hundreds of things with multiple partners. We’ve listened to the community, and so to get rid of the whole thing, and that suggestion would be sort of like throwing the baby out with the bath water. What’s important to understand is the state can object, but we hope that they will use a scalpel with this, not a sledgehammer. That’s what Governor Chiles did back in 1997. The last time we put forward a big regulatory package, he used a scalpel. He removed a few discrete items that the state didn’t agree with, and the process sets it up so that’s an acceptable thing for him to do. Nobody gets everything in this process. It’s impossible to imagine that we could all agree on every single thing. This is just too large of a project, too many components to it and to be honest, there’s going to be people who say we didn’t go far enough with what we’re doing in the restoration blueprint. So my guess is the governor’s not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. He’s going to potentially risk another state parks fiasco. So we really hope that we can get this thing across the finish line together.”
What other issues were brought up?
Fangman said, “One of them is an old one. It’s regarding who has purview over fishing regulations, and I believe the current version that we’re working with the state, speaks to that, recognizes the authority of the state on fisheries issues. So we’ve put that to bed. NOAA and the sanctuary recognize that FWC manages fisheries in the state of Florida. We’re not trying to take that away. Another thing that came up was artificial habitats, and it was suggested that we’re slowing things down. I will tell you we have not had a proposal put in front of us to slow things down. So, yes, things have been going slowly because the county is trying to do things right. We don’t want another 10,000 tires dumped in the sanctuary. We want this to be done in a way that helps address the problems that we’re facing that have been discussed at length. So we do support working together on how to decline the resources. So that was something that was brought up. The other thing was suggested is, well, let’s delay the whole restoration blueprint so we can put in information about the artificial reef project. Well, my response to that is, if we stop and add every time something new comes up, we’re never going to get this thing done. So we just have to keep moving forward. Next to water quality here in the Keys, enforcement is the other thing that everybody recognizes we have our challenges with. We acknowledge that. We have approached the state as NOAA and a federal funding entity. We provide funds to the state for enforcement. We have asked if we can give them initial additional funding to expand, but there is no capacity to expand. Captain Dipre, his team does amazing work, but he just can’t hire enough officers. So we can’t give him more money until there are more officers that can live here, afford to live here, the salaries are enough that they can fill all of the existing vacant positions that they have. So it was a very lively discussion, but I believe those commissioners listened, and hopefully we will be able to move forward, despite the fact that there are a few things left that we don’t fully agree on, but we’ll keep going.”
The sanctuary buoy team got called into some rescue activity over the weekend.
Fangman said, “Last Wednesday, our buoy teams left for a long mission out in the Tortugas. They go out there annually to conduct morning buoy maintenance. The day they left actually was 9/11. Before shoving off, the officer in charge of the mission, Adam Brynes held a moment of silence for the World Trade Center anniversary. Adam was an EMT with the New York Fire Department. He was called into duty that fateful day, so obviously, it is a very significant day for him. In fact, he was able to use his EMT training once he was out in the Tortugas because a commercial fisherman was brought to the fort at the park in an emergency situation after slicing his hand, he was unable to stop the bleeding, so Adam and the rest of the buoy team, who are all trained in first aid, they were able to render care to the man, stabilize him, until the Coast Guard could arrive by helicopter to transport him to shore. So we did post a story about that on our social media pages.”
A federal violation occurred recently involving a sawfish.
Fangman said, “This was a case where a Mississippi man has pled guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act. He severed the rostrum of a small tooth sawfish, which is an endangered species, while he was on board a shrimp boat off the Florida Keys. So this is a case that’s been in the system for a while. It goes back to 2022. The 62 year old man was aboard a commercial vessel. He was near Key West in Monroe County, and he got a small tooth sawfish entangled in the boat’s fishing net, and so in response, he decided to cut the rostrum of that sawfish from the body, which he knew was unlawful. I’m not sure why he did it. He but he did plead guilty in US District Court in Gulfport, Mississippi. He was sentenced to a year probation. I just remind folks, obviously, please, endangered species have extra protections for a reason. This case was investigated by our NOAA law enforcement, that’s part of the National Marine Fisheries Service. So please, just a reminder, we’ve got a lot of endangered species in the Keys, birds, reptiles, fish, key deer. Please give them the respect they deserve, and it’ll keep you out of trouble.”
A ghost net story was released a week ago.
Fangman explained, “Two weeks ago, we received a call from the Coast Guard. There was a fishing net that was spotted in the Upper Keys, was about a mile outside alligator reef sanctuary preservation area. There were two concerns immediately. First of all, depending on how large and heavy these nets are, they can pose a serious risk to the coral reefs on the sea floor that are protected in that area. So that was one concern. Secondly, this report came in just the day before the alligator lighthouse swim, and so there were going to be a lot of people in the water, and that could be an entanglement hazard. So we sprang into action. We found a salver who could quickly get out there, but that required funding, and so we were able to receive support from a nonprofit called the Marine Preservation Society of the Florida Keys, and they committed the funds quickly that were necessary to pay that salver. This was a complicated job, because the net was very large, it was submerged, it was a bit entangled, so it required scuba diving. It turned out that that net had already been ghost fishing, which is a term we use when a net is unattended and animals are getting entangled in it. There were several sharks that were entangled in it, but the good news is they were able to get that out and confirm that that net came from an international source, and had probably been in the water for several weeks. We know this because of this type of net are not illegal in the United States. So good job by everybody and again, we have some images on our social media pages if your listeners want to check it out.”
The Ocean Guardians Schools Program is also on the horizon, and it’s continuing to expand.
Fangman said, “This is a NOAA program that integrates ocean science and stewardship into classrooms. We have several of these schools up and down the Keys. We’re in the process of trying to make the whole county an Ocean Guardian school district. But meanwhile, we’re also expanding beyond the Keys in the latest grant application process, so we put out a call for schools to apply for funds, and we received applications from two schools in the Tampa St Pete area, so we’re going to be working with them to help raise awareness for kids in that area.”
For more information, click here: https://floridakeys.noaa.gov/