Marine Sanctuaries under attack by Pombo

This Maui News editorial raises the alarm that a Pombo bill threatens marine sanctuaries. Let me explain:

Marine Sanctuaries are regulated under the National Marine Sanctuaries act. NOAA develops regulations "on a case by case basis, with input from fishery management councils and user groups, to meet the goals and objectives of individual national marine sanctuaries"

Commercial fishing is regulated by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. This Act manages all U.S. fisheries, with the exception of the fisheries located within the boundaries of national marine sanctuaries (because, obviously, those are SANCTUARIES and need special regulations).

Now, in a bill Pombo has introduced (H.R. 5018), there is a provision that would require that "any regulation proposed under the sanctuaries act for the conservation and management of fish or essential fish habitat to be consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act". The Maui News editorial accurately states that this "would gut the National Marine Sanctuaries Act".

Why even have a sanctuary if it cannot have rules that permit it to be protected and treated differently than all the rest of the ocean? It is like having a National Park, but the forests must be regulating according to timber harvesting rules of the U.S. Forest Service, not as protected National Park land. How long would trees of Yosemite or Sequoia last when treated like that?

This guy just loves to wreck any and all environmental laws, with an obsession bordering on psychotic. And of course, he gives it the Orwellian name of "American Fisheries Management and Marine Life Enhancement Act". As soon as you hear that title, you know the fish are in deep trouble. "Block the road to the beach, Pombo is coming!"

How much longer is this cretin going to be in office?

More links:

Ocean Conservancy
National Environmental Trust

Tags: CA-11, Richard Pombo, National Marine Sanctuaries Act, Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, H.R. 5018, American Fisheries Management and Marine Life Enhancement Act, marine sanctuaries, Ocean Conservancy, National Environmental Trust