Groups seek to create Atlantic marine reserves

An influential environmental group in New England has teamed up with a group in Canada in a campaign to declare large chunks of the northwest Atlantic Ocean off-limits to fishing and other human activities to protect a wide diversity of marine life and habitat .

Today, the Conservation Law Foundation and World Wildlife Fund-Canada will release a report recommending that marine reserves be created in about 20 percent of the ocean from Cape Cod to Eastern Canada's Scotian Shelf, and extending 10 to 200 miles from shore. The protected areas would probably include some of New England's most productive fishing areas .

The groups have spent six years mapping the region -- 2 1/2 times the size of New England -- to highlight unique ocean habitats and a broad range of marine life, from microscopic phytoplankton to right whales, that are the most important to preserve.

"Our goal is to protect biodiversity for the future," said John D. Crawford, senior scientist at Conservation Law Foundation and director of the group's Initiative on Marine Ecosystem Conservation. The report, he said, is "a beginning conversation -- this needs to be figured out in the public arena, in a public process."

Congressional or presidential authorization would probably be needed to set aside a network of marine protected areas in the federally managed waters. Until now, Boston-based CLF has focused on developing the scientific tools to decide what to save, but foundation officials are planning a public and legislative effort to get marine protected areas designated.

Senators John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrats, said that they have not seen the report but welcomed efforts to protect ocean life.

The proposal is being announced as marine protected areas -- similar to conservation tracts on land -- gain a foothold across the nation, with several dozen existing in state and federal waters. In June, President Bush declared 140,000 square miles off Hawaii a national monument, prohibiting fishing and requiring permits for snorkelers and divers. California recently promised to ban or severely restrict fishing in a 200-square-mile swath, about 18 percent of state waters, off its central coast and officials there now promise to extend the network northward. If protected areas are developed off New England to the extent proposed, they would be one of the largest marine reserve networks off the nation's coast.

Many scientists and state marine officials say such marine reserves are long overdue in New England, which was once celebrated the world over for its rich cod and other groundfish stocks. Some fish populations today are a small fraction of their historic levels and it is unclear whether they ever will make a full recovery. One recent study said 90 percent of the world's edible seafood could be gone by 2048 if fishing isn't more strictly restricted. Pollution and increasing ship traffic are threatening the endangered North Atlantic right whale, while scientists worry that unique seascapes such as cold water coral beds may be lost forever if they are not outright protected.

In their report, the environmental groups give an example of what one 24,000-square-mile network of preserves could look like, with 30 parcels ranging in size from 100 square miles, on the eastern edge of Georges Bank off Cape Cod, to 4,741 square miles, a swath that extends from the northeastern tip of Georges Bank to the Scotian Shelf's southern tip. CLF's Crawford stressed that other configurations that take into account fishermen's livelihoods or shipping patterns could also work.

The groups say protected areas would prohibit most types of commercial fishing, sand and gravel mining, and oil and gas drilling, and would possibly impose speed restrictions on ships in whale-feeding areas. While each area may be protected differently, CLF's goal is to have as little human disturbance as possible in each.

Marine protected areas usually include a network of areas that allow some uses and prohibit others. Some, for example, ban any access by any person or boat while others will allow some kinds of fishing. While a series of smaller federal and state sanctuaries have been designated off New England's coast, most, such as the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, largely exist in name only with few, if any, restrictions.

To highlight key areas to possibly protect, CLF and WWF-Canada scientists gathered all the government data they could find on the life cycles, habitats, and populations of phytoplankton, fish, whales, and other marine organisms. The group also examined seawater temperature, salinity, depth, and seafloor composition. Then, they used a software program to identify the areas that protected the most species and habitats, in the most efficient way so the least amount of ocean needed to be restricted.

CLF officials say they used a 20 percent set-aside goal because it was recommended as a good target for marine protected areas in a scientific report by the National Research Council.

Fishermen, many who are withholding judg ment until they see the report, said 20 percent seemed arbitrary. Most said they weren't against protected areas -- large regions of the sea are closed now to rebuild fishing stocks -- but they worry that so much will be closed permanently they will not be able to earn a living.

"They have to be very careful not to close an area that is producing a lot of net benefit to the nation," said Vito Giacalone of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, a fishing industry group.

If history is any indication, CLF's announcement is the start of a long and guaranteed controversial process. Protesters hanged the manager of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in effigy when he began drawing lines telling them where they could and couldn't go in the 1990s. In California, the new restrictions on fishing in state waters took seven years to complete. In New England, with its large fishing fleet and vast fishing grounds, there may be even more to argue about.

"Ecologically, this is a logical discussion," said George LaPointe, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources and a member of an advisory panel for federal marine protected areas. "But if the discussion is going to be productive, we need to include everyone in the process. How do you manage it? What are your goals? How do you police it? I don't mind a discussion of no-fish areas, but is fishing survivable [ elsewhere ]? That is going to be the big question."

Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com.