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The U.S. currently has 14 national marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments. Just like the people who live, work and play within them, they are all unique and special. In these wondrous places, one storyline remains the same: If we protect the place, it will give back tenfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
America\u2019s Marine Sanctuaries: A Photographic Exploration<\/em>, a new book by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF) and published by Smithsonian Books, highlights the sanctuaries and the resources they safeguard. The book anticipates the 50th anniversary of the 1972 National Marine Sanctuary Act, which kickstarted the national effort to defend our oceans and the Great Lakes. Through exquisite photographs and intimate details, the project celebrates the nuances of each sanctuary and monument and makes a case for why these places matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor a long time, we forgot about the ocean,\u201d said Kristen Sarri, president and CEO of NMSF, the nonprofit partner of the National Marine Sanctuary System. \u201cNow we understand we won\u2019t have a healthy planet or healthy communities without a healthy ocean.\u201d Believing that photos help people \u201csee beneath the waves\u201d to understand what\u2019s there and why it\u2019s worth protecting, she enlisted the help of photographers living and working in these sanctuaries to tell the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen done right, photography has a wonderful ability to connect people to something,\u201d explained contributor Keith Ellenbogen, an underwater photographer with a conservation focus. \u201cImages can convey a sense of wanting to go to a place, a connection to an animal or what makes something special.\u201d Ellenbogen said his cover shot of a breaching humpback whale in Massachusetts\u2019 Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is his most spectacular because it showcases the animal\u2019s relationship with the ocean. It evokes a sense of anticipation for diving down into the water and sets the stage for the book, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Douglas Croft, whose image of a gray whale mother and calf in Big Sur, California, appears in the book, described the annual migration and its effect on him: \u201cI sit on the cliffs in Big Sur in late April or early May, when the gray whale moms with calves keep close to the shore to avoid killer whales. Watching them swim by beneath me is a beautiful, spiritual thing. It brings me to tears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The curious calves love to play in the kelp and sometimes stop in a nearby cove to nurse before passing his vantage point. As he waits, Croft thinks about the protected areas in Mexico where the little ones are born and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, through which they migrate as they pass his camera lens. \u201cThe whales are now protected from whaling,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a testament to what happens when we decide to protect something instead of destroying it. We see new life coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Croft remembers when Monterey Bay was not abundant and healthy. The sardines were overfished, the otters were killed for their pelts, and the waters essentially became a desert, he said. After the sanctuary was established, the ecosystem recovered and continues to thrive under its strong protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also an open fishery for crabs and anchovies and one of the world\u2019s top markets for market squid. \u201cRegulation ensures that resources won\u2019t be overfished again,\u201d Croft said. \u201cIt\u2019s so vibrant now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a deckhand on a local whale-watching boat, Croft still gets excited every time he\u2019s on the water. No matter if it\u2019s his first or 50th time seeing a whale breach, the phenomenon always takes his breath away. The experience changes people, he explained, because you can\u2019t unsee it, and you can\u2019t stop feeling what it does to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Armor, director of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS), echoed that sanctuaries are much more than environmental strongholds; they also serve as economic and social catalysts, preservation tools and living laboratories for science. These national treasures have served the communities around them in multiple, important ways since time immemorial, he added. The National Marine Sanctuary System\u2019s mandate is to defend these ecological, historical and cultural resources while promoting compatible and sustainable uses. To that end, specifically tailored, location-based conservation models ground each sanctuary.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cIf people want to keep scuba diving on reefs, we need healthy reefs. If people want to dive on shipwrecks, the wrecks need to be preserved and managed,\u201d ONMS chief economist Danielle Schwarzmann said. \u201cThe sanctuaries provide the infrastructure to do all that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is precisely the case in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) off the Texas coast. Critical habitats underpin the local economy, so fishers take an active role in their preservation. \u201cAccountability reduces waste\u201d in the sanctuary program, said Scott Hickman, a Galveston-based hunting and fishing guide and chair of the FGBNMS Advisory Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hickman innovated a win-win-win mechanism that operates in the sanctuary, simultaneously promoting fishing, supporting conservation and creating new ecotourism opportunities. Outdoor enthusiasts join commercial boats for free to have fun while helping fill orders from fish houses and learning how to protect the sanctuary\u2019s rich biodiversity. The smaller boats avoid fishing techniques that damage the unique coral reefs and fish nurseries that sustain the entire ecosystem. The catch is harvested without labor costs. Overall, the \u201cmarketable experience\u201d produces a higher-quality fish product for both local restaurants and ecotourists, and the entire program prevents overfishing \u2014 the problem that originally inspired Hickman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI ran charters for more than 30 years and got sick of throwing back dead fish that weren\u2019t being utilized,\u201d he said. \u201cNow we keep what we catch, and we stop when we get enough for the order. I developed these programs for conservation, and their implementation helped bring back these fisheries and habitats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sanctuaries build a culture of American pride in caring for something special, and knowing that places such as Flower Garden Banks will be taken care of and persist for a long time means something, Hickman said. Sanctuaries can also engage and enrich the communities around them. Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (TBNMS) in Michigan is a prime example of the convergence of conservation, social dynamics and economics. The sanctuary\u2019s designation 20 years ago preserved hundreds of historical shipwrecks, which arguably represent the greatest collection of shipwrecks in the world, said Stephen Kroll, a former Great Lakes dive operator and chair of the TBNMS Advisory Council.<\/p>\n\n\n It also reinvigorated nearby Alpena, Michigan, by creating a new business and tourism hub around the flourishing dive, snorkel and kayak industries. Much like how species naturally spill over from marine protected areas (MPAs) to nearby fishing spots, business boomed as economic spillover from protecting the historical resources. \u201cThat\u2019s the heart of what sanctuaries do \u2014 bring together communities to thrive,\u201d Sarri noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn Alpena, the community now is the sanctuary, and the sanctuary is the community,\u201d Armor echoed. \u201cProtection and conservation are not exclusive from economic and community well-being. They are linked together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This synergy within the sanctuaries is a motivating factor for Armor, who pushes all people to understand that they are stakeholders in the system. \u201cIf we do our job right,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s not just future generations that can enjoy these places and historical resources, but current communities and generations also benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For many indigenous and native communities, this past, present and future connection to the environment is foundational to their culture and identity. \u201cThe traditional way of life relies upon a healthy ocean,\u201d said Kalani Quiocho, Native Hawaiian Program Specialist at Papah\u0101naumoku\u0101kea Marine National Monument in Hawai\u2018i. \u201cWe are an extension of our place; if the place is healthy, we are healthy, and vice versa. Similarly, if we take care of the ocean, the ocean will take care of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sanctuary incorporates these viewpoints into its management. Quiocho works with management agencies to \u201cfigure out how culture can exist in some in-between spaces\u201d and enhance the work the sanctuary does. Papah\u0101naumoku\u0101kea, one of the world\u2019s largest MPAs, has species Quiocho doesn\u2019t see on the main islands and large predators that his ancestors knew and worshipped. More than that, it protects the cultural role that the reef has played in native creation stories and that it still plays in present-day culture. It\u2019s important to sustain these ties to heritage and place. Quiocho described the first time he stepped foot on Nihoa (an island within Papah\u0101naumoku\u0101kea), chanting the words of his forefathers while experiencing the same things they did when they accessed the island \u2014 the smell of guano, the hot sun on his skin, millions of birds and the sea spray. The familiarity of this \u201cancestral experience\u201d transformed him, Quiocho admitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt felt like this is where we came from, our roots, when we were still close with the sharks,\u201d Quiocho added. \u201cWe talk about endangered species and essential habitats. I feel like Papah\u0101naumoku\u0101kea is that for native Hawaiians \u2014 a place where we can be Hawaiian at the core, to our bones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The protected area serves as a portal for Hawaiian communities, ensuring that they remember its importance and allowing it to inform their decisions, he said. Protecting and connecting with such a sacred place allows Quiocho and others working within the sanctuary program to manage the waters in ways that restore both culture and nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each protected area has its own unique story and incredible strength, Sarri said. In preserving these irreplaceable resources, the sanctuaries protect who we are at our base \u2014 our soul as a nation. They reaffirm us and connect us to our incredible heritage. They revive us and fill us up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSanctuaries are like food for our soul,\u201d Armor said, quoting Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, deputy administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). \u201cThere are the things we talk about \u2014 ecological, historical, economic, the measurable things that point to a sanctuary \u2014 but what you can\u2019t measure is the impact of these places on your soul. I have felt it, and it has changed me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sanctuary protections also have a ripple effect on ocean conservation in general, with ideas from the program, such as permanent mooring buoys and community advisory councils, gaining traction globally. Indeed, America\u2019s marine sanctuaries can serve as sentinels for the wider seas, showcasing how we can move toward protecting enough habitat to ensure the ocean\u2019s future and our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many invisible forces threaten our waters. From climate change and water quality to accessibility issues and popular relevance, the challenges are numerous. They are of our own creation, which means that they are also ours to mend, Sarri said. It is our responsibility to act as stewards to protect the beauty and resources that lie within our oceans, Great Lakes and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These wonders belong to all of us and connect us to the seas, Sarri concluded in the book. The ONMS holds these special places in trust for current and future generations, ensuring that they \u2014 and we \u2014 can and will endure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch this video to learn more about the U.S. National Marine Sanctuary System and its upcoming 50th<\/sup> anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/world.dan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/humpback-whale-breaches-stellwagen-bank-national-marine-sanctuary.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\nJelajahi Lebih Lanjut<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n