Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Final Management Plan

2012

Silver Spring, MD

NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) and Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS)

136

"The sanctuary's 2012 Management Plan serves as a framework for addressing issues facing the sanctuary over the next five to ten years. It lays the foundation for protecting, conserving, and enhancing Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) and its regional environment in the Gulf of Mexico for this and future generations. The 2012 Management Plan includes two proposals that are particularly likely to interest the public: 1) A recommendation to expand sanctuary boundaries to include additional reefs and banks in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, and 2) Further study to determine the need for a scientific research area within the sanctuary to better understand the impacts of hook and line fishing and SCUBA diving. These will be considered for action prior to the next management plan review and will necessitate further analysis through an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This management plan is organized into six sections. Section 1 provides background information on national marine sanctuaries, FGBNMS, and the purpose and need for updating the management plan. Section 2 is an overview of the institutional setting in which the sanctuary operates and of the regional ecosystem of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. It also describes the local environment of East and West Flower Garden Banks and Stetson Bank. Section 3 contains the action plans, which detail the management strategies and activities to address the priority issues of FGBNMS and meet the purposes and policies of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA) (Appendix I). Section 4 provides information on the public comments received on the draft management plan and a summary of the changes that were made to the management plan as a result. Section 5 provides a summary of the environmental analysis of the two alternatives considered: 1) no action, and 2) the preferred alternative of revising the management plan and making modifications to FGBNMS regulations (Appendix II). Section 6 lists the sources cited in this document."