There are several other sites under consideration for marine sanctuary designation, one of which is likely to achieve this status early in Fiscal Year 1976. A nomination is presently being processed for an ocean area adjoining the Florida State John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Its specific purpose will be to curb activities now taking place adjacent to the park that are damaging to the coral. A draft environmental impact statement describing the proposal and its effects was circulated for comment in August 1975. A nomination has been received for an area in South Carolina in Port Royal Sound in Beaufort County for presernation purposes. The site was under Federal and state review at the end of the fiscal year. Still under examination are two similar proposals, one for Puget Sound to protect the killer whale and the other for the coastal area adjoining several California coastal counties. Estuarine Sanctuaries The Nation's second estuarine sanctuary was designated in Fiscal Year 1975 with a grant of $1.5 million from the Office of Coastal Zone Management to Georgia to acquire a portion of Sapelo Island. In addition, $325,000 Federal matching fund expansion (over and above $823,965 awarded in Fiscal Year 1974) of the first estuarine sanctuary in Oregon along with an alternate management system from that originally conceived was negotiated. The estuarine sanctuary program (Section 312 of the Coastal Zone Management Act) provides for the purchase of estuarine areas for scientific study purposes. Specifically, the program contemplates acquisition of examples of the major estuarine types in the country (18 in number) for preservation in their natural state to be available. for ecological research and to provide basic information useful to the coastal zone management program. The 6,150 acre Sapelo Island area, which adjoins a wildlife refuge and contains a marine research center of the University of Georgia, is to be acquired with State of Georgia matching funds (at least 50 percent) as well as a Federal grant. The Sapelo Island's estuarine sanctuary will serve as a natural field laboratory for Carolinian biogeographic types. The sanctuary will be owned by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and research policies will be established through the University of Georgia. While primarily to be used as a research area, the sanctuary will be available for light recreational use as it is at present. Camping, fishing, and crabbing, as well as beach use, are contemplated at light levels so as not to disturb the natural environment of the area. A Research Advisory Committee is to be established to assist in the establishment of a research policy. There will also be a Management Advisory Committee and a Citizens Advisory Committee. Prior to the approval of the site, a public meeting was held in the county seat of Darien, Georgia, on December 2, 1974, and a public hearing on the draft environmental impact statement describing the project was held May 8, 1975, in the same community. The final impact statement was issued June 13, 1975, and the grant was made to Georgia on June 27. In Oregon, a revised agreement was negotiated during the year providing for a revised and expanded boundary to the previously designated sanctuary on the South Slough of Coos Bay. A management committee formed by the state proposed a three-tier management system where activity levels would be guided by potential impact on the sanctuary's natural state. An effect of the three-tier system is to allow a greater amount of commercial timbering in a second-tier area adjacent to the area immediately surrounding the estuary. The state can control activity in this area by less than outright acquisition through special use agreements, easements, or other devices. The third-tier would be an area where activity would be controlled by strict enforcement of existing laws. The net effect is an addition of 130 acres to the 4,200-acre site. The reason for a three-tier system is to offset the major ($1.5 million) increase in the total cost resulting from the fact that the timberland in the original sanctuary turned out to be far more valuable than calculated. The total cost is now estimated to be (avoiding to the extent possible outright purchases) $3,805,130, of which the Federal share is $1,148,965. The objective of the estuarine sanctuary designation in Coos Bay remains unchanged by the alterations in the contractual agreement worked out in June 1975. The objective continues to be to maintain the integrity of the estuary in order to preserve it for long-term educational and scientific uses. The scientific objectives are to gain a better understanding of estuarine ecosystems, to establish a baseline against which to measure impacts in other similar areas, and to provide information for the state's coastal zone management effort. 16 The legislation authorizing appropriations under 305 (program development), 306 (program management) and 312 (estuarine sanctuary program) carries a termination date of the end of Fiscal Year 1977. In order to assure states of continuing funding under each of these three activities, it will be desirable to enact with as much advance time as is feasible extensions of the authorizations of the three sections. In addition, experience with the program since activation in 1973 may well suggest additions or changes in mechanisms provided in the Coastal Zone Management Act. |