Going to Sea
How marine conservation came to the coast
Last week, I published a story about a local marine conservation effort that has been going strong for 25 years. It lacks regulatory power so relies instead on voluntary efforts. It’s a fascinating model, born out of failure. It revealed to me many things that were new. For this week’s trip to The Classroom, I went digging to find out more. Alas, I haven’t had time for a thorough review, but I’ve learned a little. Read on!
A Failed Sanctuary and a Successful One
In the early 1990s, while I was wandering through my college library stacks trying to find insights, Northwest environmental activists rallied for marine protection. Nearshore habitat was disappearing. Pollution settled into the Salish Sea. Species numbers kept shrinking. Proposals came forth for two national marine sanctuaries, one centered on the Pacific Coast of the Olympic Peninsula and the other along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and northern Puget Sound.
The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary went forward in 1994. The Northwest Straits counterpart attracted opposition and failed.
My incomplete understanding of this difference is a threat of oil drilling on the coast alarmed enough people to support the coastal sanctuary and a fear of federal, top-down rules alarmed enough people to oppose the straits sanctuary. I’m certain a more complex explanation exists.
Since I focused my story last week on what emerged out of the failure, for this newsletter I wanted to probe a bit more into the successful one.
Authority
Like probably 98 percent of historians, I focus on land. This leaves enormous gaps in my knowledge about marine conservation and almost anything oceanic. My first question, then, was: Where did marine sanctuaries originate?
The short answer is the National Marine Sanctuaries Act. The law linked there, though, is what it looks like today, as amended and reauthorized in 2000. The original version had the more ponderous name, Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. Between 1972 and 2000, it passed through six different amendment and reauthorization processes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Sanctuaries website, though, points out that at least six other laws have been used to build the sanctuary system. That seems complicated, but as two marine policy experts put it, “Few places attracted more controversy than those described as ‘the commons’—places owned by all, but owned by none—and not many other ‘commons’ are more prone to bringing out as much open hostility and disagreement as the oceans.” With that backdrop, it is not surprising that a clear, coherent, longstanding conservation pattern has not emerged.
If threats to the Washington coasts produced two proposals for sanctuaries in the 1990s, what generated the energy for the 1972 law?
A Moment for the Oceans
Signal environmental laws in the 1960s like the Wilderness Act (1964) were only a start. As early as 1966, a Scientific Advisory Committee to President Lyndon Johnson recommended a marine counterpart to wilderness legislation. Something that powerful did not catch on, but threats to the coasts and seas kept concern high.
In 1969, the Unocal oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara ignited calls for action. Historians (including me) often cite it as the impetus that produced the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) signed less than a year later by President Richard Nixon.
Much has been made of Nixon’s environmental record with most observers concluding that his interest derived from political calculation. Not to mention the power of environmental advocates in Congress and the public demanding action.
Thirteen months after signing NEPA, Nixon sent a special message to Congress with his proposed environmental program. He gave the ocean attention, calling for a ban on “unregulated ocean dumping.” At the time, New York City eyed the open sea as an ideal place for its trash. Nixon’s idea was that the Environmental Protection Agency, created the previous year, would be authorized to permits for dumping—and then the presumed reduction of those permits.
Congress responded over the next year. On October 28, 1972, Nixon signed 37 bills (withholding his signature on nine other bills—Congress once knew how to legislate!). One was the sanctuaries bill, but more focused on water. He signed the Marine Mammals Protection Act, citing species depletion and anticipating the Endangered Species Act (1973). Also, the Coastal Zone Management Act went into effect to encourage long-term planning along coasts. (In his comments on this law, Nixon encouraged Congress to pass a national land use bill, part of which I described here.)
The foundation for coastal conservation was set.
Designation Language
The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary’s official designation makes for dry reading. (Pardon the pun.) Besides establishing boundaries and regulatory patterns, the area is characterized in an interesting way:
The Sanctuary is a highly productive, nearly pristine ocean and coastal environment that is important to the continued survival of several ecologically and commercially important species of fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. Its rugged and undeveloped coastline makes the region one of the more dramatic natural wonders of the coastal United States, paralleling the majestic splendor of such terrestrial counterparts as Yosemite National Park and the Grand Tetons.
The language, to me, intersperses classic nature celebration language—pristine—while adding newer ecological language, mingling with economic terms, ending with comparisons to arguably the most iconic landscapes on the continent. It’s an odd mash-up for the 3,188 square miles that buffer the northwestern coast of Washington.
Today
The sanctuary is developing a new management plan for review now. More exciting than that, a new Discovery Center in Port Angeles to house the headquarters has been announced.
Besides the sanctuary in Washington, more than a dozen exist with others proposed. Our terrestrial biases mean most of us probably remain unaware of this conservation system. It’s worth learning a bit about.
Final Words
The story I wrote last week in the Salish Current about what emerged instead of the marine sanctuary in the Northwest Straits is here.
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Taking Bearings Next Week
I’m back for The Field Trip next week. I expect a small local trip—or maybe something a little offbeat. Stay tuned!