Located just 25 miles east of Boston, Stellwagen Bank constitutes one of the most important and diverse submarine habitats in the Gulf of Maine. The Bank was designated a National Marine Sanctuary in 1992 and represents a unique and vital marine ecosystem with a multitude of ocean invertebrates, fish and marine mammals.

Unfortunately, the current conservation measures protecting this "Marine Sanctuary" do not go far enough. The designation does not protect Stellwagen from excessive pollution, overfishing, and environmentally insensitive fishing practices that are harming this important ecosystem and putting its future in jeopardy. CLF is calling for the creation of fully protected ocean wildlife and habitat areas at Stellwagen Bank, where extractive and otherwise harmful activities would be prohibited.

On May 6, the Stellwagen Bank managers presented a draft management plan that guides all commercial and recreational activities inside the Sanctuary. Although it was ten years in development, this management plan lacks any real protections and proposes to take no real action to protect ocean wildlife or their threatened habitat. Stellwagen Bank deserves real protections now for the area’s fish, whales and other wildlife. We need to protect large areas of ocean habitat from harmful industrial trawling, better manage shipping and boat traffic to stop endangered whales from being killed and create long-term management plans.

Now is the time for you to get involved and push for real protections.

Stellwagen Bank Background:
An Eco-Rich Bank 14,000 Years in the Making

Geologists estimate that Stellwagen Bank was originally dry land sculpted and forced underwater some 14,000 years ago by the recession of the last Great Ice Age glaciers. Wooly mammoths and mastodons frequented the Bank in its earlier terrestrial phase. Today, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary has depths ranging from 65 to 300 feet, and the 842 square miles of rich waters provide essential habitat for an unbelievably wide array of marine creatures: invertebrates from assorted sponges and corals to starfish and squid, groundfish from the yellowtail flounder to the fearsome wolf fish, and even the prized lobster and sea scallop. Schools of bluefin tuna and marauding blue sharks cruise the middle depths in search of plentiful baitfish while 30-foot basking sharks and huge prehistoric ocean sunfish move harmlessly with the surface currents. Even the increasingly rare loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles can be encountered on occasion.

Stellwagen Bank, however, is most well known for its 19 species of marine mammals. Many of the Sanctuary's 1.5 million annual human visitors come to see the seals, dolphins, porpoises and of course, the great whales. Whale watch tours from spring through fall regularly introduce viewers to, among others, Atlantic white-sided dolphins and finback and humpback whales, who are renowned for their exciting breaches through flocks of scavenging seabirds. The luckiest enthusiasts might even come across the slow-moving, critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, a species with fewer than 300 individuals surviving in the world today, or the 100-foot blue whale, the world's largest mammal. Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary is also home to historic shipwrecks such as the just discovered steamship "Portland." Undoubtedly, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is a national treasure that must be protected to the fullest extent possible, so that future generations might enjoy the sanctity of this fertile water as much as we have.

Unfortunately, current conservation measures do not go far enough. Overfishing, wastewater discharges from greater Boston, excessive ship speed, and environmentally insensitive fishing practices continue to tax this important ecosystem and put the health of New England's only National Marine Sanctuary in jeopardy. Increased protection of Stellwagen Bank is critical to the well-being of our marine ecosystem, and the survival of certain species - such as the endangered humpback and North Atlantic right whales - depends on it.

Contacts:

Priscilla Brooks, Ph.D.
Marine Conservation Program Director

Press:

• 10/8/08 - Ship Strike Reducation Rule Aims to Protect Whales
• 10/7/08 - Divers Shed Light on Wreck of Portland
• 5/16/08 - Stellwagen Bank's unmet mission
• 5/1/08 - Do Right By These Whales

More on Stellwagen Bank:

• 10/3/08 - CLF Comments, Stellwagen Draft Management Plan
• 10/3/08 - Final National Marine Sanctuary sign-on letter
• 9/29/08 - CLF Comments, Ship Strike
• Map of Stellwagen Bank

Photo courtesy NOAA