About 23,000 square miles of complex deepwater corals located off the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia, and eastern Florida was voted unanimously to be protected. According to the members of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, SAFMC, a federal government advisory body, ipon implementation by the Secretary of Commerce, the measure will protect specific areas of sensitive habitat, designated as Coral Habitat Areas of Particular Concern, inhabited by coral species living in waters ranging from 1,200 feet to 2,300 feet deep.
Council Chairman Duane Harris informed that he was delighted, after five years of effort, that the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has taken this historic step in the protection of deep sea coral habitat. He added that this effort involved working closely with golden crab and royal red shrimp fishermen and coral reef experts to craft measures that allow continued fishing while ensuring these coral areas, some of which are thousands of years old, are protected.
Dave Allison, senior campaign director at Oceana, is of a view that this landmark decision is a win for the oceans and those in the southeast who rely on it for their livelihoods. Allison said that the crushing of these ancient coral reefs would be a serious loss to the ocean ecosystem and could threaten the survival of golden crab and wreckfish fishermen that catch other species on these deep reefs.
Dr. Doug Rader, chairman of the Council’s Habitat and Environmental Protection Advisory Panel, opined there is a collaborative process involving conservationists, scientists, managers, and fishermen over the next five years, culminated with the development of the Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendment 1, which was approved last week.
He further said that in both the process involved and the results achieved, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has set a new standard for management of valuable ecosystems.
