Andrew A. Rosenberg, who oversaw the Georges Bank recovery plan as a Fisheries Service regional director and is now a professor at the University of New Hampshire, now tells his friends to order scallops when they dine out.
"Marine protected areas are a blindingly obvious, very effective tool," Rosenberg said. "You need to leave some places alone."
Overfishing has contributed to a drop in some species' numbers in the Florida Keys.
(Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary -- National Oceanic And )
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Some marine advocates are seeking a middle ground, pushing for sanctuaries or other marine limits that stop short of no-take reserves. The nonprofit group Environmental Defense has been working with regional fishery officials to identify 700 square miles between North Carolina and Florida where only bottom fishing would be banned in an effort to restore deep-water grouper and snapper stocks, as well as another plan to protect coral forests.
David Festa, ocean program director at Environmental Defense, said negotiations took off after people "let go of the holy grail of no-take marine reserves."
Billy Causey, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, is another pragmatist, a former tropical fish collector who once questioned establishing a protected area in the Keys. "People hear the word 'sanctuary' and think we're going to ban everything," he said.
Causey has had his share of fights: In July 1992, he arrived at the Buccaneer Lodge in Marathon, Fla., to see himself being hanged in effigy by sanctuary protesters. But he has had wins as well, working with scuba divers, fishermen and politicians from both parties in 2001 to create the Tortugas, a 151 square nautical mile reserve, now the largest U.S. no-take area.
Today, exploited species are thriving in restrictive Keys reserves such as Eastern and Western Sambo, which have been closed to fishing and other activities since 1997. Giant spiny lobsters once again huddle under the reefs. State officials said the crustaceans' average weight rose from 0.71 pounds to 1.1 pounds by 2001.
Early next year, federal officials are poised to enact their most ambitious reserve plan ever in the northwestern Hawaiian islands. More than 1,200 miles long and 100 miles wide, the area represents one of the most isolated and diverse ecosystems on Earth, with more than 7,000 marine species, 25 percent of which are found nowhere else.
The islands are too remote to be a tourist destination, and fewer than 10 fishing boats make the several-day trek. These fishermen may be grandfathered in under the proposed sanctuary plan, but even so they are fighting it.
"Just because we're small, they're just going to step on us and push us aside," said Robert Gomes, one of the few fishermen who works there. Daniel Basta, director of the Marine Sanctuary Program, said it is "likely" some fishing will be allowed, but he declined to elaborate. He said establishing the sanctuary, which would be more than six times the size of the country's existing sanctuaries combined, would make "a fundamental statement by our country about conservation."
Americans may initially resist such moves, Basta said, but over time they are becoming more receptive. "The public process is messy," he said. "But if you educate, are patient and build trust with the American public, they will do the right thing."
