Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) was designated in 1992 off the coast of Massachusetts to protect a diverse array of biologically productive habitats.

Stellwagen Bank is recognized as one of the best locations in the world to observe whales. Each year, more than one million people visit SBNMS aboard commercial whale watch vessels.

SBNMS facilitates research and education programs to better understand the ecosystem and communicate its importance to the public. It has focused on minimizing vessel collisions with whales.

Located in the southern portion of the Gulf of Maine, SBNMS encompasses some of the nation’s most intensively-fished commercial and recreational fisheries. Commercial fishermen land nearly 17 million pounds of fish and crustaceans from SBNMS waters each year. SBNMS does not regulate fishing, however. Fishing is regulated by U.S. fishery management councils.

In 2010, SBNMS published a new management plan, only the second since its designation. The plan raised concerns that protecting and restoring biological communities will require modifying fishing activities. In 2011, SBNMS proposed creating a reference area, which would be off-limits to fishing, to study the impacts of fishing on a range of habitats.

• Complexity: Use of science to inform management.
• Collaboration: Involvement of agencies with overlapping jurisdiction and marine stakeholders.
• Scale: Focus on an ecosystem scale.

Mission

The mission of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is “to conserve, protect and enhance the biological diversity, ecological integrity and cultural legacy of the sanctuary while facilitating compatible use” of the marine resources, according to the management plan.

Vision

In 2005, the Sanctuary Advisory Council adopted the following vision of the future: “The Stellwagon Bank National Marine Sanctuary is teeming with a great diversity and abundance of marine life, supported by diverse, healthy habitats in clean ocean waters. The ecological integrity of the sanctuary is protected and fully restored for current and future generations. Human uses are diverse and compatible with maintaining natural and cultural resources.”

• Army Corps of Engineers
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Fish and Wildlife Service
• National Park Service
• Minerals Management Service
• U.S. Coast Guard
• U.S. Navy

Regional Fishing Authorities

• Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
• Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council
• New England Fishery Management Council

State

• Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs
• Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office
• Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
• Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife and Environmental Law Enforcement

Education Partners

• Cape Cod Museum of Natural History
• Cape Cod National Seashore
• New England Aquarium
• Scituate Maritime and Irish Mossing Musejm
• Woods Hole Aquarium

Sanctuary Administration

The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) has an office in Scituate, Mass. A sanctuary superintendent oversees day-to-day operators to implement programs and projects. In 2008, SBNMS employed seven full-time staff, and five part-time contractors.

Sanctuary Advisory Council

A Sanctuary Advisory Council was formed as a volunteer body to provide advice to the sanctuary superintendent. The council provides for a  two-way flow of information between SBNMS and its constitute groups, and acts as a forum for developing a consensus on management-related issues.

The council establishes working groups as needed to tackle topics of interest.

The council has seats for 17 voting members who hail from four states, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

Two seats on the council are designated for each of the following groups:

• Conservation
• Education/Outreach
• Research

One seat is designed for each of the following groups:

• Business/Industry
• Diving
• Fixed gear commercial fishing
• Marine transportation
• Maritime heritage
• Mobile gear commercial fishing
• Recreational fishing
• Whale watching

Three seats are designated for members of the public at-large.

In addition, six state and federal agency representatives serve as non-voting, ex-officio council members.

In 1982, Stellwagen Bank was nominated for designation as a National Marine Sanctuary by the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Mass. and the Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, D.C.

The impact of human activities led to a greater concern for the marine resources. Coastal regional development was increasing in New England; Stellwagen Bank lies only several miles offshore of Cape Cod and Cape Ann and water quality was a concern. Meanwhile, commercial whale watching was growing in popularity.

Advocates sought to highlight the importance of the ecosystem and establish a means to achieve more coordinated, comprehensive management.

After a review process that lasted a decade, Congress established the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in 1992.

The Ecosystem

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) encompasses 842-square miles of open ocean off the coast of Massachusetts in the southwestern corner of the Gulf of Maine. It is located entirely in federal waters and includes the submerged Stellwagen Bank, Tillies Bank and Basin, and the southern portions of Jeffrey’s Ledge. Its namesake Stellwagen Bank is a sandy bank deposited from glaciers less than 20 meters below the surface of the ocean.

The nutrient-rich waters and diverse habitats support an area of heightened biodiversity. More than 575 species spend part of their life cycles within the sanctuary. They include more than 80 species of fish, including commercially important cod, flounder, herring, lobster and scallops.

Twenty-two species of marine mammals are found within the sanctuary, including endangered humpback, fin and sei whales, and the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. Sanctuary waters also support 34 species of seabirds and four species of endangered or threatened sea turtles.

Other sanctuary resources include historic shipwrecks; 18 shipwreck sites have been identified within SBNMS and three are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Threats

Threats to the ecosystem of SBNMS include:

• Fishing pressure: The waters of SBNMS are among the most historic U.S. fishing grounds and have been under intense fishing pressure for decades. SBNMS estimates that virtually every square kilometer of the sanctuary is physically disturbed by fishing. Fishing removes the forage base that supports whales and limits the species diversity of the ecosystem. Whales are harmed by becoming entangled in fishing gear.
• Vessel collisions and impacts: About 10 percent of vessel-whale collisions reported world-wide occur within SBNMS. A major shipping corridor runs through SBNMS. Other vessels ply the waters as part of recreational and commercial fishing ventures, and whale watch tours.
• Land-based pollution: Coastal development and industrialization of the shoreline threatens water quality within SBNMS and encourages harmful algal blooms.

Regulation

Designation of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) prohibited mining of sand, gravel or other minerals from the seabed. It prohibited dredging or altering the seabed, with an exception for the incidental consequences of traditional fishing activities. Sanctuary regulations also generally prohibit the taking of any seabird or marine reptile.

Enforcement is conducted on an ad-hoc basis by the U.S. Coast Guard, NOAA Office of Law Enforcement, and Massachusetts Environmental Police.

In 1999, NOAA established voluntary guidelines for whale watch operators. The guidelines specify limits on how fast vessels can travel and establish minimum distances vessels should stay away from whales. A recent study, however, suggested that compliance with the guidelines is low. Industry regards them as too stringent.

Zoning

In 2007, the International Maritime Organization approved a proposal from the U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA to move the shipping lane through the sanctuary 12 degrees to the north. The action reduced the risk of vessels striking whales by steering traffic away from an area of the sanctuary with a greater concentration of whales.

In 2011, SBNMS began a process to create a Sanctuary Ecological Research Area within a portion of the sanctuary. The area would contain zones with restrictions ranging from the prohibition on all types of fishing to prohibitions on the use of certain types of gear. The intent is to create a reference site for use in a study of the impact of fishing across multiple habitat types.

Research

SBNMS conducts research and facilitates the work of external partners. It maintains a research vessel and focuses on understanding seasonal dynamics in ecosystem structure and function, as well as the behaviors of certain species, such as whales, and the impacts of fishing and human activities on species, the ecosystem, and historic shipwrecks.

Education and Outreach

SBNMS produces print and audio-visual materials, including a newsletter, that detail research, management issues and stewardship programs. The materials are geared to tourists, whale watch operators, and other members of the public. SBNMS has cooperated with and facilitated the production of many television and other documentaries featuring the marine resources.

SBNMS has stationed semi-permanent educational displays at regional museums or visitor centers, including the New England Aquarium, Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, Cape Cod National Seashore, Scituate Maritime and Irish Mossing Museum, and the Woods Hole Aquarium.

Monitoring

The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) conducts monitoring activities of the ecosystem using its research vessel and measures several water quality parameters, such as nutrients and contaminants.

In 2006, SBNMS published a “Condition Report,” detailing the status of marine resources.

Evaluation

Although the SBNMS Final Management Plan of 2010 did not propose new regulations, it included an evaluation of existing efforts. The plan stated that existing efforts to protect whales from ship strikes are not sufficient.

The plan also raised concerns that biological diversity was not being protected by the existing fisheries regulations promulgated by U.S. fisheries management councils and NOAA Fisheries. As the plan stated: “The key to protecting and restoring biological communities within the sanctuary must be modification of fishing activities to make them environmentally sustainable such that habitats are not damaged and excessive bycatch is not removed.”

SBNMS has proposed the creation of zones off-limits to fishing to further study the impact of fishing on marine resources.

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary has:

• Assisted in generating new knowledge to more fully characterize and understand the marine and cultural resources within the sanctuary.
• Injected an ecosystem focus to institutional proceedings relative to the sanctuary.
• Helped elevate Stellwagen Bank as a special place deserving of protections.

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary: http://stellwagen.noaa.gov/