Spearfishing "selectively" Banned at Grays Reef Sanctuary Effective March 22nd

Coming to a Sanctuary near you-


Spearfishing Gear prohibited in Gray's Reef NMS

Effective March 22, 2010

NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries has released a final rule to prohibit the use of spearfishing gear in Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. Possession of spearfishing gear is also prohibited except for vessels passing through the sanctuary without interruption, and only when the gear is stowed and not available for immediate use. NOAA has prepared an environmental assessment and has determined there will be no significant impact as a result of this action.

A spearfishing ban was considered during the 1981 designation of GRNMS and again during the sanctuary’s management plan review beginning in 1999. After additional socioeconomic information was collected in 2007, the spearfishing gear ban was proposed again in early 2009. Public comments on the proposed rule were received from March 4 - May 4, 2009. Comments came through a public meeting on March 19th in Richmond Hill, GA, and through email, standard mail and through regulations.gov



See our website for links to all the related documents: Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary Home



For questions or more information, contact Resource Protection Coordinator, Becky Shortland or phone at (912) 598-2381.

WTF?! I just read that after years of giving the IWC (International Whaling Commission) the middle finger, Japan is going to be able to hunt whales legally even after "research" suggests that whale populations are declining.

As John Frizell of Greenpeace International observed:


The proposal rewards Japan for decades of reprehensible behavior at the International Whaling Commission and in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. We are at a critical junction for both whaling and ocean conservation. A return to commercial whaling would not only be a disaster for whales but will send shock waves through international ocean conservation efforts, making it vastly more difficult to protect other rapidly-declining species such as tuna and sharks.

I guess I should just hope that Japan does'nt decide to start going after Snapper and Grouper for scientific research ! Sorry, did'nt mean to high jack your thread but this new closure you posted along with all the current bans... and then I read its okay to hunt whles now! :headscratch:

Fisheries management is all about the money! All that they care about at NOAA is increasing the value of fisheries for commercial exploitation.