The Tortugas Ecological Reserve: A Critical New Fishery Reserve

Posted: 01-Dec-2000; Updated: 17-Sep-2003

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Ninety miles west of Key West lies an area with many of the most well-developed coral reef formations and tropical fishery resources in North America: the Dry Tortugas. Thanks to ten years of effort by a variety of management agencies, fishermen groups, environmental organizations, and scientists, large sections of two of the most important areas of the Tortugas have been set aside as full no-take reserves. In total, the area of no-take reserves in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has been increased ten-fold. This will afford the kind of protection typically only seen in traditional land parks, and represents a key turning point in the management of our heavily depleted marine fishery and habitat resources.

The proposed reserve's design was developed over many years by several advisory groups representing many diverse interests including commercial and recreational fishermen, conservationists, divers, and scientists. The two-part reserve design has been unanimously endorsed by the Tortugas 2000 Working Group, the Sanctuary Advisory Council, the Florida Governor and Cabinet, and overwhelmingly approved by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

Several agencies have jurisdiction over the protected areas. The figure shows the boundaries of the full Tortugas Ecological Reserve as proposed by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and the differing jurisdictional components of the reserve. The Tortugas South component is currently under Gulf Council jurisdiction and contains Riley's Hump, a key reef fish spawning aggregation site. The Tortugas North component is much more complicated. Four differing agencies currently have authority over portions of this area. These are shown in the figure (GMFMC = Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council; FL = Florida State Waters; FKNMS = Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary; DTNP = Dry Tortugas National Park).

The full Tortugas Ecological Reserve including all of the above jurisdictions and the National Park, contains 191 square nautical miles of coral reefs, seagrass beds, and other diverse and productive habitats in which fishing impacts would be prohibited. This represents a ten-fold increase in the total area of no-take zones within the FKNMS and is one of the nation's most significant and promising marine conservation initiatives.

Key websites include:
FL Keys National Marine Sanctuary
Dry Tortugas National Park
Gulf of Mexico FMC

Tortugas Reserve - Recent Milestones

May 1999 - The Tortugas Working Group unanimously agrees on a preferred alternative for the Tortugas Ecological Reserve.

June 1999 - The Sanctuary Advisory Council unanimously approves the Tortugas 2000 Working Group's recommendation for a no-take ecological reserve and forwards this recommendation to the GMFMC, NOAA and the State of Florida.

December 1999 - The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meets in Islamorada and directs its staff to move forward on creating a no-fishing area for those portions of the proposed reserve in state waters. The Commission also agrees to hold joint public hearings with NOAA.

March 2000 - The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council votes unanimously to consider establishing a no-fishing area for those portions of the proposed Tortugas Ecological Reserve that are in Federal waters outside of the current Sanctuary boundary.

July 2000 - The preferred alternatives from the March 24 decision (contained within a generic amendment to 7 fishery management plans) are overwhelming approved by vote of the full GMFMC.

March 2001 - Rileys Hump spawning aggregations at Tortugas South and a small portion of Tortugas North receive formal protections as federal rules go into effect.

April 2001 - The Florida Governor and Cabinet vote 7-0 in favor of the state components of the Tortugas Ecological Reserve.

July 2001 - The FKNMS components of the reserve go into effect. All non-Dry Tortugas National Park areas are now protected as a marine reserve.

July 2001 - The Secretary of the Interior approves the Dry Tortugas National Park Management Plan. This protects the final areas of the larger Tortugas Ecological Reserve. Get more information from the Dry Tortugas National Park web site.

Tortugas Reserve - Some Upcoming Milestones

5 Year Review. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is initiating a review of the entire sanctuary management process. Visit the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary web site for more information.

Suggested Talking Points for Comments to Agencies

• Implement regulations that will ban all harvesting (including catch and release fishing) of marine life, and will prohibit anchoring within the Tortugas North and Tortugas South Reserve boundaries (or, for the National Park Service, within the proposed Research Natural Area). Take the necessary steps to expand the jurisdiction of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary to encompass the entire Reserve (except for the waters of the National Park).

• The recommendations of the Tortugas 2000 Working Group, the Sanctuary Advisory Council, and the GMFMC are fully endorsed.

• Establishment of the no-take Tortugas Marine Ecological Reserve is essential for effectively protecting fish and invertebrate populations and the habitats they depend on, and the reserve will generate both conservation and fisheries benefits for current and future generations.

• Without resources for both 1) monitoring and 2) consistent law enforcement, effects on fish abundance cannot be assessed and a primary value of reserves, their potential as control sites, is lost. This reserve will need a clearly defined monitoring program and, as importantly, mechanisms to fund it. We urge the allocation of adequate funds to support enforcement and research activities essential to the integrity of the reserve.