68
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fall 2012
“
Sanctuary” is not a novel concept in the Florida Keys. When
the fragile corals off Key Largo were threatened by divers
with crowbars decimating the reef in pursuit of souvenirs
to sell, protection was implemented by the creation of John
Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in 1960. The Keys’ best
corals, however, are those of the fringing reefs 4 to 6 miles
offshore, beyond the purview of Florida statutes. If protection
was to be effected for those reefs, it had to be the job of the
federal government.
In 1975 NOAA’s fledgling National Marine Sanctuaries
program established Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary
and then, in the lower keys in 1981, Looe Key National
Marine Sanctuary.
Throughout the 1980s, oil-drilling proposals, deteriorating
water quality and the loss of coral-reef cover were alarming
enough, but then several large vessel groundings scarified
pristine reefs. On Nov. 16, 1990, President George H.W.
Bush signed the bill establishing Florida Keys National
Marine Sanctuary. This new sanctuary integrated both
the Key Largo and Looe Key sanctuaries and guaranteed
protection for 2,800 square miles of Florida Keys waters.
As favorably as the sanctuary is regarded today, various
user groups expressed considerable consternation when
it was proposed in the late 1980s. Conchs (the colloquial
appellation for long-time Keys residents) are a fiercely
independent lot, and they didn’t want the government telling
them what they could and, more significantly, could not do
in their ocean. Regional director Billy Causey was hung in
effigy beside the Overseas Highway, and emotional debate
raged among conservationists and reef radicals. Eventually,
once people understood the integral concept of zonation, the
sanctuary was embraced.
The brilliance of the management plan is that certain areas
are set aside for particular uses. For example, spearfishing,
lobstering and hook-and-line angling are traditional fisheries
in the Florida Keys, and throughout most of the sanctuary
they are allowed. But there is a critical necessity for sanctuary
preservation areas (SPAs), total no-take zones in which
fish are safe to congregate and breed, and marine life is
concentrated to the delight of the hundreds of thousands of
scuba divers who visit each year.
A corollary benefit of the SPAs is that the fish seem to know
they are safe within them and have no fear of divers. With
bubbles and flashes prompting no flight reflex, the sanctuary
is one of the most productive environments for marine-life
photography anywhere in the Caribbean or tropical Atlantic.
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
America’s Coral Garden
By Stephen Frink
Florida Keys NMS is known for
large, colorful schools of fish
like these grunts at Snapper
Ledge off Key Largo.
STEPHEN FRINK