A sweeping new management plan to address worsening conditions in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and in the works for more than a decade was rejected Tuesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis over complaints that it limits the state’s sovereignty.
In a brief, one-page letter, DeSantis said the plan failed to pave the way for artificial reefs in state waters and stripped Florida of managing its own wildlife.
“As published, the rule and management plan repeal longstanding references to the State of Florida's sovereign right to manage marine life and sovereign submerged lands within the state's jurisdictional waters,” DeSantis wrote in a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
In three memos attached to the letter, Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Department of Environmental Protection and Office of Resilience echoed the complaints.
“The Biden administration’s last-minute filing of the [National Ocean Service] rule reeks with political motives, rather than exemplify a true effort to establish ‘enhanced coordination and cooperation,’ ” the Resilience memo said.
But advocates say the plan, hammered out over dozens of community meetings and public comment period that generated thousands of comments, creates much-needed protections for busy waters where fish and reefs are fighting to survive.
A blistering heat wave in 2024 triggered widespread coral bleaching that crippled reefs followed by a puzzling fish die-off that included more than 50 endangered sawfish. Sawfish again started dying this winter.
“ It was a really balanced plan that we developed at the end of the day and state agencies were heavily involved in the process,” said Kelly Cox, an advisory council member and Everglades policy director for Audubon Florida. “So we were disappointed to see this outcome.”
Planning for the blueprint dates to 2011, following a dire conditions report that found the 20-year-old sanctuary — overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — was continuing to decline. Rather than reverse conditions, the 108-page peer-reviewed study determined coral reefs and shallow seagrass flats along with endangered sea turtles, wading birds and sportfish were continuing to get hammered by booming South Florida.
“None of them were even OK. There was bad and worse,” said Jerry Lorenz, a longtime member of the sanctuary advisory council. “So that report comes out in 2011 and that was where we could start talking about a management plan.”
Public meetings, thousands of comments
Following dozens of public meetings and after receiving thousands of comments, sanctuary officials released a draft plan in 2019. After more revisions, another draft plan was released three years later.
At each stage, the sanctuary’s advisory council, which includes state officials along with business owners and representatives from boating and fishing associations, weighed in.
“It was all step by step. We had listening sessions with the community where we had the meetings start in the afternoon and end in the evening so the community could come in,” Lorenz said. “This is what the people asked for.”
In December, another revised and final version of the plan followed. Similar to other drafts, the final plan expands the boundaries of the sanctuary by 20% to just over 4,500 square miles, adds 20 new wildlife management areas, four habitat restoration areas and 11 coral nurseries. About 95% of the sanctuary would remain open to fishing, but with different regulations on motoring and anchoring to protect coral, shallow flats and nesting birds.
The final draft came with a March deadline for the state to approve or reject the plan.
State officials, however, were already warning that it hampered state rights. At a September FWC meeting in the Keys, former commission chair Robert Spottswood urged the agency to tell DeSantis to reject the plan because it made creating artificial reefs in state water too cumbersome.
Spottswood also wanted the state and U.S. Army Corps to retain approval of the artificial reefs without the sanctuary signing off and for the state to retain final jurisdiction over fishing regulations in inshore state waters, where pollution, heavy boating and development have taken the hardest toll. And, he said, NOAA should pay more to FWC to police rules in the expanded sanctuary.
If the terms were not met, he told commissioners, the state should not just reject the blueprint, but veto all the sanctuary management rules in Florida waters.
“ I know that's a drastic ask, but I think that these fundamental principles,” he said. “I find it difficult to believe that FWC and a sanctuary can't reach common ground."
DeSantis decision disappoints council members
DeSantis’ rejection was not a complete surprise, but it was still disappointing to advisory council members who worked on the plan.
Fishing captain and Islamorada City Council member Steve Friedman said he worried that conditions would continue to worsen.
“All the stakeholders, and the fishing community especially, were an advocate for this every step of the way,” he said. “This administration and FWC had every opportunity to chime in about what they did not like. They had every chance and they didn’t do it until the 13th hour.”
But some others backed the governor's move, saying hammering out the protocols over which authority gets to decide rules in waters that crisscross the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) and the Atlantic Ocean and includes various fisheries councils, should have been done first.
"Plenty of us were saying you need to get to the fisheries management protocols done first," said Will Benson, a Keys fishing guide and boat captain. "It's putting the carriage in front of the horse."
For now, existing sanctuary regulations will remain in place for state waters, which make up about 65% of the sanctuary.
In a statement provided by the sanctuary spokesperson, the new rules wouuld help address increasing threats, including marine heat waves, coral diseases, intensified hurricanes and recreational and commercial fishing and diving.
“We will continue to work with state agencies to protect this critical area for years to come,” they said.
Whether a new management plan is part of that protection is unclear. There’s a still a chance a deal could be negotiated, said Cox, the advisory council member.
“ I'm hopeful that this will not take another 10 years, and it's something that we can finalize, hopefully in the next few months,” she said. “This is something that the Keys needs. This is something the community is asking for, and I hope that we can get it to the finish line sooner rather than later.”
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