Scott Atwell, Communications and Outreach Manager for the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday to talk about what’s been going on in the sanctuary.
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council met on Tuesday and adopted a resolution on the restoration blueprint.
Atwell said the “restoration blueprint, of course, was released, I guess a few weeks ago. We’re in the middle of the 45 day period in which Governor DeSantis can decide to maybe alter some things that fall into state waters. The deadline for anything he changes is March 3, so in advance of that, our sanctuary advisory council at yesterday’s meeting affirmed its united support for NOAA’s final rule and management plan. What they did was endorse a resolution that was put forward by the water quality working group, and I would describe the resolution as a continuation of the commitment by both the council and the public to ensure that the Florida Keys are conserved for generations to come.”
Work on the restoration plan has been ongoing for a while.
Atwell said it will “implement balanced restoration measures that have been informed by more than 80,000 public comments in more than 70 public sessions, and the resolution urgently called for NOAA, Florida Department of Environmental Protection and FWC to prioritize the details in the blueprint and immediately allocate the necessary funding and resources to finalize and implement that rule with management plan, because, after all, without the resources and the emphasis it’s is just that, a plan. So the council also began to outline priorities for a new adaptive management working group. Adaptive management is a phrase we use in in our business to sort of describe learning and then acting on what we learned. So this new council working group is going to help the sanctuary make responsive changes more quickly to things that we see out on the water.
The meeting also had a celebratory memorial for two former leaders of the sanctuary who passed away – Billy Causey and John Halas.
Atwell said, “Many of the SAG members worked with these gentlemen over the years, and it was really fitting that a period of time during the meeting was dedicated to their memory. I want to say the last time you and I talked, I mentioned Billy Causey, who was a force of nature really getting a larger sanctuary established, but John Halas preceded him as manager of what we used to call Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary was the first protected area in the Keys that was established in 1975. John died a couple weeks ago in South Carolina at the age of 82 and his early experience in the dive industry helped him recognize the impact that anchoring was having on the economically and culturally valuable coral reefs in the Keys, and it led him to develop the mooring buoy system that we know today. Talk about a legacy. The first real world test of that system happened 1981 at Key Largo’s French reef, and today it spans more than 600 buoys up and down the Keys. So anyone who ties their vessel up to one of those morning buoys can thank John Halas. He took that idea all around the world. I’ve seen pictures of him even as far away as China, helping others to understand the value of this system. So we took a little time yesterday to reflect on John’s contributions and Billy’s as well.”
Will Governor DeSantis make any changes to the blueprint?
Atwell said, “I do not expect major changes at all. I think that there were a handful of things that, even after all of the agreements, or things that we agreed on with the state, there were still a handful of things that that they wanted still and can still have in state waters with the governor’s veto pen. So I’m anticipating there will be one or two things, but it will just simply be inside state waters. Anything that is in federal waters exclusively will continue on as outlined at the blueprint.”
Mission Iconic Reefs had an out planting recently.
Atwell said, “We’re celebrating the five year anniversary of Mission Iconic Reefs, and we’re celebrating it with five events, appropriately enough, and event number one really shows why we’re optimistic about the future of coral restoration. From a research standpoint, something positive did come out of the 2023 heat wave, and that was us being able to identify the coral genotypes that tolerated the heat and actually survived, and we’re able to take clones of those corals, grow them and now out plant them back on the reef. This coral reef provides billions of dollars of revenue annually, and if we want generations in the future to enjoy the same benefits, we have to continue to do this work and preserve the very important resource. So a few weeks ago, we marked the five year anniversary with event number one, with our partners, Coral Restoration Foundation, MOTE Marine Laboratory and Reef Renewal. All three came out with us and out planted some of those heat resistant species that we believe will be the next generation on the reef. Ee have other events scheduled coming up in March. Some of them are for kids and we’re going to cap it all off with the premiere of a new film on the first five years of the program that will premiere at the Eco Discovery Center in Key West on March 30.”
The sanctuary team will be at the Nautical Market.
Atwell said, “The sanctuary team will be there with our tent, answering questions and handing out copies of our new sanctuary magazine. What an event it is. I mean, it’s really one of the great events in the Florida Keys. So hats off to the Rotary and everyone who’s involved with it. Saturday, eight to five. Sunday, nine to three. I was at another great event in the Keys this past weekend, the Florida Key Seafood Festival in Key West and hats off to the Commercial Fisherman’s Association for the work that they did, great bands. It was just a great time, great food, of course. The one thing that I noticed as I was speaking to people who came to our tent is even people who are dedicated boaters in the Keys, unfamiliar with the free mobile app that we have, which is called Marine Sanctuary Explorer. It doesn’t cost you anything. It’s GPS enabled. I pulled up the map and showed all these white boxes up and down the Keys that are managed zones by the sanctuary. So each of those white boxes contains regulations and guidelines of things you can and can’t do in those specific areas. I said it’s GPS enabled. So as you approach one of them, it’s going to ping you and say, this is what you can and can’t do there. Go to your app store, whether it’s Google or Apple, put in Marine Sanctuary Explorer, download it and take it with you on the water, and I promise you, you’ll find it to be a valuable resource.”
For more information, click here: https://floridakeys.noaa.gov/