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Proponents: Hague Line reserve would help ecosystem, fisheries Supporters of a proposal to establish a marine reserve along the boundary dividing the Gulf's US and Canadian waters say prohibiting fishing and other activities there would help to regenerate commercial fisheries and provide valuable research areas.
Describing the logistics of establishing a multinational marine reserve as formidable, but not insurmountable, proponents cite their biggest difficulty as winning public support for the proposal, especially among marine users. Many commercial fishermen, for example, dread more restrictions on where they can fish in the Gulf. According to Ron Huber, Director of the Coastal Waters Project (CWP) in Rockland, Maine, that organization, along with Canadian and US researchers, is pushing for designation of a marine reserve on the Hague Line — the international boundary established by the International Court of Justice in the Hague, the Netherlands. The reserve would define a strip of ocean about 200 miles (320 kilometers) long and a little more than six miles (10 kilometers) wide, stretching from the top of Jordan Basin through Georges Bank. Huber said the reserve would protect diverse types of habitat that are home to an extensive array of species — including some undiscovered ones. Left alone to recover from human activity, he said, the site would become a treasure trove for researchers studying "what a natural ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine is supposed to be like," and would help reinvigorate fisheries in the Gulf. At a workshop at the New England Aquarium in April organized by the Marine Conservation Biology Institute based in Redmond Washington, an international group of marine scientists identified 29 percent of the seabed in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank as top priority areas for protection due to their "exceptional biological resources." According to Martin Willison, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a proponent of establishing a Hague Line reserve, the group determined that "the greatest concentration of areas suitable for the protection of species and communities at risk lies on the Hague Line." Marine protected areas The Hague Line reserve would fall under the classification of a marine protected area (MPA), which describes any terrain below the high tide line that is protected by any legislation, regulation, or ordinance to conserve biodiversity or to promote study or sustainable use of its ecosystem. Tidal flats, marine mammal or rare species habitat, spawning and nursery areas, estuary zones, kelp forests, salt marshes, and other features are potential candidates for designation as marine protected areas. The degree of protection provided by MPA designation can vary "from temporary fishery closures up to permanent closed areas from which nothing will be extracted," including fish, oil, gas, or gravel, explained Willison, who is working with Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), to develop a system of MPAs in Canada under its federal Oceans Act. According to the International Marine Mammal Association, based in Guelph, Ontario, more than 1,300 sites in the world's oceans receive some degree of protection as marine reserves, parks, sanctuaries, and conservation areas. But conservation organizations are calling for more. The Washington, DC-based Center for Marine Conservation is urging expansion of US efforts to conserve marine protected areas, and is calling for more funding for programs that support them. Why the Hague Line A Hague Line reserve, Willison said, would be protected against oil drilling and fishing gear that drags on the ocean floor, but would not be closed to vessel traffic. He has also described the reserve as a "peace park," that would provide a buffer zone to help US and Canadian fishermen stay out of one another's fishing grounds. Huber noted that the Hague Line is routinely patrolled by the US and Canadian coast guards to prevent fish poaching and drug trafficking, so mechanisms are already in place to enforce protective designation. Willison advocates that some areas of the ocean floor completely undisturbed to protect important resources. He explained that while fishing quotas may reduce pressure on certain species by limiting the number of individual organisms harvested, the restrictions don't protect residents of the ocean floor from damage caused by fishing gear and other intrusions. Proponents of the Hague Line reserve assert that banning fishing, drilling and other activities within the proposed reserve area would allow bottom-dwelling species there to regenerate and spawn. Currents would then distribute that spawn elsewhere in the Gulf, reinvigorating fish stocks in areas open to fishing. "In a way these things can act like cornucopias," said Huber of marine protected areas. Willison and American researcher Richard McGarvey determined several years ago through bioeconomic modeling that if parts of Georges Bank were closed to scalloping, allowing the shellfish to reach their reproductive peak at about 12 years of age, their populations would regenerate. Older scallops produce many more eggs than do younger ones, but scallops are routinely harvested well before they reach their reproductive peak, Willison said. Huber asserted that the resurgence of scallops on George Bank following closures to protect groundfish stocks there show that closures do facilitate recovery — at least as far as scallops are concerned. Federal fisheries officials were scheduled to reopen areas of Georges Bank to scalloping in June, within the confines of the groundfish closures that remain in effect. Routes for designation No recipe exists for establishing an international marine protected area such as the proposed Hague Line reserve. Though there are some provincial and state pathways for establishing protected areas in their respective waters, most Marine protected areas are designated though US or Canadian federal programs. In the US, these include the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act; the Coastal Zone Management Act; and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Huber said he has presented the Hague Line proposal to the New England Fisheries Management Council, which is determining which areas should be covered under the US Essential Fish Habitat plan under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, in the hope that the plan may serve as a route for designating a Hague Line reserve. One area the management council has named a Habitat Area of Particular Concern is on Georges Bank's northern edge. Huber describes this area as the "anchor" of the proposed reserve. In Canada federal designation of marine protected areas can occur through its National Parks Act, its Canada Wildlife Act, and, most recently, its 1997 Oceans Act, which created a marine protected area policy and mandates development of a national MPA network. Bob Rutherford, Acting Manager of Oceans Division of DFO's Maritimes Region, said DFO trying out the new policy with a pilot site east of Sable Island. He noted that the department is also considering two other sites for designation, one in Prince Edward Island, and one in Musquash harbor just south of Saint John, New Brunswick. The department is unlikely to take on anything as complicated as the international Hague Line proposal before completing work on these first three sites, he said. Public support Willison predicted that the public's level of interest in a Hague Line reserve will determine whether the Canadian and US governments will support and pursue it. "The public challenge is the biggest challenge, particularly dealing with the users of the environment," such as fishermen and oil and gas enterprise, he said. Some groups in the Gulf of Maine are exploring how MPAs can be used as a tool for managing Gulf resources, whether by proposing specific sites for designation, or in more general discussions. The Gulf of Maine Council has facilitated discussion of Marine protected areas among those with a stake in the marine environment through a workshops and a survey; has developed a database of existing protected coastal and marine areas, conservation zones, and restricted fishing areas in the Gulf; and has evaluated legal mechanisms for establishing MPAs. Jennifer Atkinson, Staff Attorney in the Conservation Law Foundation's (CLF) Rockland, Maine office, said a new CLF committee is continuing MPA discussions. Its members include representatives of state and federal governments, nongovernmental groups, researchers and a former fisherman. While so far comprising only US members, Atkinson said the committee wants to expand to include Canadian representatives as well. Canada offers more effective routes than the US for establishing Marine protected areas, Atkinson asserted. In the US, she said, designations don't always effectively shield so-called "protected" areas. She noted that within Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, for example, while there are certain restrictions in place against extraction of sand and gravel, it is not closed to fishing. Stellwagen Bank spokesperson Anne Smrcina said the sanctuary is undergoing a five-year review of its management plan, which presents an opportunity for the public to push for more additional protective measures at the sanctuary. Concerns about restrictions Needless to say, the idea of increasing restrictions in certain areas is alarming to some. Craig Pendleton, a scallop fisherman and Executive Director of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA) based in Saco, Maine, didn't anticipate fishermen would welcome the idea. "When you look at the closures right now and the ones coming up, half the Gulf of Maine is going to be closed so it's a struggle to find it in yourself to say, ‘Yeah, sure, why don't you just close another place forever,' " he said. Pendleton acknowledged that scallop dragging disturbs the ocean floor, but said he needs more proof that that is necessarily detrimental to other species. He noted that he continues to catch fish in the same place year after year, despite whatever effects his gear may be having on the sea floor. Atkinson, who is active in NAMA, said there is no absolute proof, but she explained that Marine protected areas represent a precautionary approach — one that can benefit the fishing industry. "It's important to realize what are you doing over time and how you are the affecting the whole of the ecosystem," she said. "We're asking for a tremendous leap of faith to be taken by industry that the scientific theories of how fish ecology works are more or less sound, and if we create a large baseline protected area there will be benefits for them," said Huber. "Right now marine protected areas are not something the fishing community wants to hear about," Atkinson acknowledged. "Now's not the time to try to go out and establish them, but to decide what they mean and what they're for: to create a sustainable, healthy ecosystem that supports a diversity of uses including fishing." She and Pendleton both voiced the need to involve the fishing community in discussions of MPAs. There is a way to protect both fishermen and fish habitat, according to former fisherman Herb Hoche Jr. of Hope, Maine. A supporter of the Hague Line proposal, Hoche remembers catching scallops the size of dinner plates on Georges Bank in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and said the reason they were so large and plentiful was that "we were not dragging all over the place." Hoche said advanced navigational instruments enable scallopers to see what's on the ocean floor, making it possible to drag more of the bottom than in years past, when fishermen avoided unfamiliar areas for fear of losing their gear. He proposes that scallopers reduce the amount of area they drag, and define specified "avenues" for dragging — just as drivers on land are supposed to confine themselves to driving on designated roadways — leaving other areas undisturbed. "It makes a lot of sense to protect the habitat for the fish," Hoche said. "Unless the [juvenile fish] have a place to hide they'll never grow up. Where are they going to live if you're constantly stirring up the mud?" Fishermen support Musquash MPA With endorsement from the Fundy North Fishermen's Association (FNFA), the Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB) has nominated the Musquash Harbor and estuary on New Brunswick's Saint John River as a marine protected area under Canada's Oceans Act. The World Wildlife Fund-Canada describes the candidate site as largely undeveloped and relatively unpolluted. Should it be designated, the site would be the first MPA created in the Gulf of Maine under Canada's new Oceans Act. In developing the proposal, the Conservation Council and the fishermen's association have agreed that scallop dragging would be allowed to continue within a "special scallop zone" at the mouth of Musquash Harbor, but that there would be no expansion of the scallop fishery within the MPA. WWF-Canada is working toward a goal of developing, by 2001, a network of marine protected areas that represents the region's biodiversity said Inka Milewski, Atlantic Coordinator for the group's Marine Protected Areas program. Milewski is also Past President of CCNB. Greg Thompson, Secretary Treasurer of FNFA, said the Conservation Council proposed the idea at the association's annual meeting, explaining the value of the saltmarsh to local fisheries as a nursery and food source, and expressing concern about the effects of potential development of heavy industry in the Port of Saint John. "I think with the fishermen it is more an issue of how is this going to affect me," said Thompson. "The cumulative total of each little piece of sea bottom becoming off limits to fishing of concern to us," he said, though he conceded that protecting a certain area "may be more beneficial to us in the long term." In this case, however, Thompson said, "We didn't see it was any harm to us. It could only help us if marshes are, in fact, the contributors to the marine ecology that is believed at the moment." Web sites:
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