May 27, 2009


Smarting from the sting of federal actions that have closed public access to stretches of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Dare County fishermen and divers last week expressed little faith that an ongoing management review of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary would address the concerns of the local community.

“We have a real sense of déjà vu.  We’re hearing talk about the importance of the process, public input, and advisory committees, but we’ve just suffered through 18 months of the same thing with the federal government on the beach access issue,” said Rob Alderman, producer of the “Outer Banks Angler” television program.

Alderman spoke during the public comment portion of the sanctuary advisory council meeting held at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras May 19.

The advisory committee is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to update and revise the 1983 management plan and rules intended to protect the wreck of the Civil War ironclad from damage by human activity. 

The current plan controls access through a permitting system, and prohibits anchoring and some types of fishing in the one-mile area surrounding the wreck that rests about 16 miles off Cape Hatteras.

Speculation that the review process is likely to result in expansion of the site to encompass other wrecks and more access restrictions has run through the local community since last year.

But David Alberg, superintendent of the Monitor Sanctuary, said the review would provide an opportunity to evaluate management and possibly consider less restrictive rules on access.

“No decisions have been made.  Everything is open for discussion at this point,” he said. 

He said NOAA would not expand the sanctuary without state support.

“If the governor said expansion would be disastrous, NOAA would not pursue that course,” he said.

NOAA has marked the locations of 2,855 U-Boats, merchant vessels, lifesaving service boats, fishing vessels, and other maritime artifacts off the North Carolina coast.

Alberg said eventually about 3,500 locations would be identified.

Aaron Harmon, manager of the Down Under Dive Shop in Raleigh, asked how NOAA would determine which wrecks were historically significant.

“Not all are critical, but some are.  The importance of these resource points will be determined during the review process,” Alberg said.

Dave Summers, operator of a dive boat out of Teach’s Lair Marina in Hatteras, said the corrosive marine environment has left most wrecks unrecognizable as ships to the general public.  Some wrecks were further damaged when they were used as targets in military bombing practice.

“In any case, most of the wrecks are not historically significant.  They were like the pickup trucks of their day,” he said later.

Alberg said the idea that NOAA doesn’t want to work with the local community is not true.  He said the agency could help increase tourism on the Outer Banks by providing resources to promote shipwrecks off the North Carolina coast.

“NOAA has worked with Alpena (Michigan) and other towns to turn the economy there from one of resource extraction with high unemployment to one of resource protection that drives tourism,” explained Jeff Gray, superintendent of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary on the Great Lakes.

Gray said the Alpena community initially opposed the Thunder Bay sanctuary, but now supports expanding the size of the sanctuary from 448 to 3,662 square miles.  He said the sanctuary places few restrictions on diving and fishing.

Joe Schwarzer, chairman of the advisory committee and director of North Carolina’s maritime museums, said NOAA has helped the community by providing close to $2 million in construction funds for the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum.  He added that NOAA provided $250,000 for exhibits last year and somewhere between $185,000 and $195,000 this year.

But some fishermen said sanctuary rules had hurt local fishermen.

“The impact of an expansion of the sanctuary on fishing in North Carolina would be huge,” John Pieno, who owns Outer Banks Diving in Hatteras and also fishes, said after the meeting.  He said the impact would affect commercial fishermen, charter-boat businesses, and recreational fishermen.

“Most of the boats running out of Hatteras are too small to travel long distances safely,” Pieno explained.

Fishermen said the recent listing of the Monitor and other sanctuaries in a national system of marine protected areas, that also includes many national and state wildlife refuges, had heightened their fear that fishing could be further restricted.

Some marine protected areas allow fishing, but others are “no-take” reserves where extraction of any resource, including fish, is prohibited. 

Some also prohibit any access, other than for research, something that troubles divers.

“Do we need a gigantic blanket of protection over this area?  I don’t think so,” said Summers, the Hatteras dive-boat owner. 

The Monitor advisory council is expected to present recommendations to Alberg by late September.  A draft management plan should be developed by the summer of 2010.

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