Humans a threat to ocean preserve

SCITUATE -- Just off the Massachusetts coast is one of the richest marine habitats in the United States, an arc of shallow ocean called Stellwagen Bank, where whales, tuna, cod, and dozens of other species have dined on an underwater smorgasbord for thousands of years.

Recognizing the critical importance of Stellwagen Bank in 1992, Congress designated the area a national marine sanctuary, a nature preserve where sea life and habitat would be protected while allowing compatible commercial uses such as fishing and whale watching.

But today Stellwagen Bank is a sanctuary in name only, according to conservationists and other observers.

Instead of creating an underwater park, critics said, its protectors have allowed the bank to become an industrial zone, where heavy fishing nets scrape the sea bottom to disrupt habitat for fish that are struggling to recover from overfishing. The nets can also tear apart historic shipwrecks resting on the sea bottom. Whales that feed in Stellwagen are in danger of being struck by tankers and other large ships that pass through its waters or of being harassed by some of the more than 1 million whale watchers who visit each year.

"When people hear the name sanctuary, I think most of the public would say, 'Oh, wonderful,' " said Andrew Rosenberg, a former deputy director of the National Marine Fisheries Service. But if they were confronted with reality at Stellwagen Bank, he added, "I think they'd be shocked."

Last month, the sanctuary released a sobering status report on the health of the 842-square-mile preserve. The report, the first ever issued about the sanctuary, gave marks of mostly fair to poor. The top concerns, according to the report and sanctuary managers, are damage from fishing gear, a reduction in the stocks of key fish species, and collisions with whales.

Craig MacDonald, who has been superintendent of the sanctuary since 2000, called the report "a wake-up call."

US Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts used harsher language to describe the report's findings.

"Fifteen years ago, we designated Stellwagen as a marine sanctuary to preserve it for future generations," Kerry said. "These latest findings are unacceptable. We must take action now in order to address the problems in the sanctuary, so we can get back on the path toward preserving the marine and ecology health of Massachusetts Bay."

But how to make that happen is controversial, not only at Stellwagen Bank, but at the growing number of protected areas in the waters of the United States and other countries. As such projects as wind farms and offshore aquaculture are proposed in these open expanses, environmentalists say there is a growing need to put more areas off-limits to save fragile creatures of the sea.

Fishermen, however, say they are already banned from large swaths of ocean and that more prohibitions could put them out of business.

Other groups, such as whale watchers and recreational boaters, insist that they do little damage.

Edward Barrett, a commercial fisherman out of Plymouth, said he would oppose additional restrictions in the area.

"Stellwagen Bank is an extremely important fishing ground, and that's why we have a sanctuary there," said Barrett, who is president of the Massachusetts Bay Groundfishermen's Association. From the beginning of discussions about the sanctuary, he said, the preserve was intended to allow fishermen from Provincetown, the South Shore, Boston, and Gloucester to continue to do their job.

Barrett said he does not believe that groundfishermen, who drag nets on the sea floor or hang them in the water to catch fish, are having a negative impact on the sanctuary.

"We've been reduced 58 percent this year alone," said Barrett, whose boat is allowed to fish 28 days this year. "How can we be making such large impacts if we're spending half as much time there?"

Stellwagen Bank's serene surface can obscure its importance as one of the world's richest fishing grounds. Once dry land with grasses, forests, and animals, the area was slowly covered by water as glaciers retreated and melted after the end of the last ice age. Today, the sandy shallows are pocked with ridges and troughs; nearby are steep canyons, all contributing to a diverse array of habitats that are home to dozens of species.

The bank curves for about 19 miles and measures 6 miles across at its widest point. The waters, which range from 65 feet deep to 600 feet or deeper around the bank, are extremely popular with recreational boaters and fishermen.

"Many people think we're a financial institution," said MacDonald, referring to a lack of public awareness about the sanctuary.

Environmentalists, however, have long known of the bank's importance, and they say they hope that the new report will lead to a hard-headed consideration of tougher restrictions on commercial uses. Now, only a 22 percent slice of the sanctuary is permanently protected from fishing.

The sanctuary does ban sand and gravel mining, dumping, oil and gas drilling, and the exchange of petroleum products at sea. But the preserve's living resources remain available for the plucking.

"If it's going to be a sanctuary, it should have some protections," said John D. Crawford, a senior scientist at the Conservation Law Foundation, who stressed he is not advocating that fishing be banned.

"Stop wasting taxpayer money on the illusion that this is a sanctuary," Crawford said.

Damage from decades of industrial fishing, Crawford said, has resulted in "large-scale habitat destruction" in a varied terrain that includes sand, mud, gravel, and boulder fields.

According to the foundation scientists and economists, the cod population in the Gulf of Maine, where the sanctuary is located, is estimated to be 23 percent of what scientists consider to be a healthy level.

In addition, fish in the sanctuary grow to much smaller sizes than they did a few decades ago, a change that threatens to profoundly skew the predatory food chain in the preserve and alter the configuration of species there, Crawford said.

Environmental groups, the foundation, and sanctuary management are also concerned about the large number of whale-watching boats that bring an estimated 1 million tourists to the sanctuary each year, one of the top 10 whale-watching locations in the world. But these vessels, as well as private recreational boats, occasionally venture too close to the mammals, possibly harassing them or interrupting their feeding, sanctuary staff said.

Whales are occasionally hit by large commercial ships on the bank, adding a potentially fatal peril in the ancient feeding grounds. Ten percent of the world's reported collisions with whales occur in Stellwagen Bank, where the animals migrate to feed.

MacDonald, whose headquarters are in Scituate, says some promising changes are in motion. For example, the establishment of new shipping lanes to Boston for large vessels, a change scheduled to begin in July, is expected to dramatically reduce collisions with whales.

Yet Stellwagen management has seen its funding cut slashed 20 percent since fiscal 2004, dropping from $1.79 million that year to $1.43 million this fiscal year.

MacDonald says the sanctuary's greatest problem may be that the public does not fully appreciate the riches that lie just off the coast.

"If a broader public loved this place and wanted to protect it," MacDonald said, "we may well see the priorities would be placed differently."

Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at b_macquarrie@globe.com.