Save the Oculina Reef!
Let’s Make Persistence Pay!
Act today and submit your comments before the June 28 deadline!
As seasoned conservationists, we know it’s often sheer persistence that achieves the goal of protecting ecologically critical habitats.
We’re again asking you to submit comments to protect the one-of-a-kind Oculina Deep Water Coral Reef off of central Florida’s east coast. This time your comments will go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This is the last opportunity we have to stop the proposed Coral Amendment 10, which would allow destructive bottom shrimp trawling within portions of the Oculina Habitat of Particular Concern (OHAPC). We must convince NOAA to stop this amendment. NOAA has THE authority to decide whether or not to approve Coral Amendment 10.
NOAA has published the proposed Amendment 10 in the Federal Register which allows a period to time for public comment. The deadline for submission of public comments is June 28. To go to the public comment page, click this link:
https://www.regulations.gov/search?filter=NOAA-NMFS-2021-0126
Click the “Comment” box under the PROPOSED RULE and complete the required fields. NOAA is required to answer each substantive comment, so have at it! (If you previously made comments to the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, please resubmit them, now addressed to NOAA.)
To recap, the Conservation Alliance of St Lucie County (CASLC) is opposed to Coral Amendment 10 for many reasons, including:
* No destructive fishing activity should ever be allowed in the vicinity of an already protected marine area, a designation the Oculina Coral Reef Habitat Area of Particular Concern has already earned.
* Bottom trawling for shrimp will create sediment plumes, which can smother and kill still-living Oculina coral and prevent resettlement of coral larvae. Only 10% of the original coral reef remains due to prior shrimp trawling, before its protected status was assured. Bottom trawling clear-cuts and kills everything in its path, including new Oculina growth.
* Oculina coral is a unique-in-the-world marine ecosystem, supporting hundreds of marine species, including thousands of animals per single coral.
* As Dr. Grant Gilmore’s research has found, Oculina coral habitat is critical as a spawning site for groupers and snappers, as well as other fish that utilize both the coral habitat and the Indian River Lagoon.
*Climate change is accelerating the loss of coral reefs around the world, and in Florida, particularly. We must protect the healthy deep-water Oculina coral from unnecessary destruction.
Please act today and submit your comments before the June 28 deadline!
We’d like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Edie Widder of ORCA for her very valuable assistance to team Oculina. We thank you, too, for your time and dedication in protecting Oculina.
CASLC has partnered with the Marine Conservation Institute in Washington, D.C., which has been very active in creating a multiple-pronged strategy to protect Oculina. We encourage you to read the recent Press Release, which is an excellent updated summary of the Oculina issue, on MCI’s website. https://marine-conservation.org/on-the-tide/oculina-deep-water-corals-under-threat/
This link is to the non-governmental sign-on letter that we are submitting to NOAA. Numerous, local, state, and national organizations have signed on. https://marine-conservation.org/oculina-letter/
Our Change.org petition, “Save the Oculina Coral Reef” has 2,584 signatures to date; let's get to 5,000! Sign it here: https://www.change.org/p/save-the-oculina-coral-reef-this-unique-coral-ecosystem-is-found-nowhere-else-on-earth
Act today and submit your comments before the June 28 deadline!
As seasoned conservationists, we know it’s often sheer persistence that achieves the goal of protecting ecologically critical habitats.
We’re again asking you to submit comments to protect the one-of-a-kind Oculina Deep Water Coral Reef off of central Florida’s east coast. This time your comments will go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This is the last opportunity we have to stop the proposed Coral Amendment 10, which would allow destructive bottom shrimp trawling within portions of the Oculina Habitat of Particular Concern (OHAPC). We must convince NOAA to stop this amendment. NOAA has THE authority to decide whether or not to approve Coral Amendment 10.
NOAA has published the proposed Amendment 10 in the Federal Register which allows a period to time for public comment. The deadline for submission of public comments is June 28. To go to the public comment page, click this link:
https://www.regulations.gov/search?filter=NOAA-NMFS-2021-0126
Click the “Comment” box under the PROPOSED RULE and complete the required fields. NOAA is required to answer each substantive comment, so have at it! (If you previously made comments to the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, please resubmit them, now addressed to NOAA.)
To recap, the Conservation Alliance of St Lucie County (CASLC) is opposed to Coral Amendment 10 for many reasons, including:
* No destructive fishing activity should ever be allowed in the vicinity of an already protected marine area, a designation the Oculina Coral Reef Habitat Area of Particular Concern has already earned.
* Bottom trawling for shrimp will create sediment plumes, which can smother and kill still-living Oculina coral and prevent resettlement of coral larvae. Only 10% of the original coral reef remains due to prior shrimp trawling, before its protected status was assured. Bottom trawling clear-cuts and kills everything in its path, including new Oculina growth.
* Oculina coral is a unique-in-the-world marine ecosystem, supporting hundreds of marine species, including thousands of animals per single coral.
* As Dr. Grant Gilmore’s research has found, Oculina coral habitat is critical as a spawning site for groupers and snappers, as well as other fish that utilize both the coral habitat and the Indian River Lagoon.
*Climate change is accelerating the loss of coral reefs around the world, and in Florida, particularly. We must protect the healthy deep-water Oculina coral from unnecessary destruction.
Please act today and submit your comments before the June 28 deadline!
We’d like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Edie Widder of ORCA for her very valuable assistance to team Oculina. We thank you, too, for your time and dedication in protecting Oculina.
CASLC has partnered with the Marine Conservation Institute in Washington, D.C., which has been very active in creating a multiple-pronged strategy to protect Oculina. We encourage you to read the recent Press Release, which is an excellent updated summary of the Oculina issue, on MCI’s website. https://marine-conservation.org/on-the-tide/oculina-deep-water-corals-under-threat/
This link is to the non-governmental sign-on letter that we are submitting to NOAA. Numerous, local, state, and national organizations have signed on. https://marine-conservation.org/oculina-letter/
Our Change.org petition, “Save the Oculina Coral Reef” has 2,584 signatures to date; let's get to 5,000! Sign it here: https://www.change.org/p/save-the-oculina-coral-reef-this-unique-coral-ecosystem-is-found-nowhere-else-on-earth
We are organizing citizens to save help save Oculina Reef in Florida. This unique coral ecosystem is found nowhere else on earth!
The Oculina reef is at risk due to a recent amendment by South Atlantic Fishery Management Council which would allow Rock Shrimp Trawling in the buffer area of the Oculina Coral Habitat Area of Particular Concern. This amendment still needs to go through a public comment period and can be stopped by NOAA. We have a petition on Change.org that citizens can sign in support of stopping this action. In addition we are gathering organizations to sign on to a letter in opposition of the amendment. The Sign-On Letter and a link to our petition can be found below. Both provide further detail on this initiative. If you are a citizen, please sign our petition. If you are part of an organization that would be interested in signing on to our letter of opposition please email our organization at SLCConservationAlliance@gmail.com
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On Wednesday April 13th 2022, a small group of scientists met with NOAA to provide education about the Oculina Reef and the reasons we need to stop this amendment. They also delivered our petition and the letter signed by local and national organizations who support our action to stop this amendment. The meeting went well but we are not out of the woods. The amendment will now go into a public comment period after which a decision will be made on whether the amendment will stand. During the public comment period, weal will resubmit the petition with additional signatures collected between this meeting and the time of the public comment period. In addition we are still adding organizations to the sign-on letter, which will also be re-submitted.
