General Management Plan
Thomas M. Strom Two students wade at Elliott Key at dusk. "If you visit a national park out west, you expect to see tall trees and healthy populations of large mammals. If you visit Biscayne National Park, you expect to see healthy reefs with a lot of coral cover and lots of large fish of different species." -- Biscayne National Park Superintendent Mark Lewis
Managing America's national parks requires a careful balance between use and preservation. We want visitors to see, enjoy, experience and learn from these special places while ensuring the very reasons these parks were preserved by the American people are not jeopardized. At Biscayne National Park, our management goal is to protect the precious resources entrusted to our care while offering rewarding experiences for all visitors, including boaters, sightseers, anglers, snorkelers, divers, kayakers, birders, and glass-bottom boat tour passengers.
A General Management Plan, or GMP, is the main document that guides park operations. The goals of a comprehensive and effective GMP are to preserve and protect natural and cultural resources and provide for visitor experiences consistent with the park's purpose. GMPs often involve extensive scientific review and always include invitations for public participation to ensure that the decision-making process is informed, balanced, and inclusive. The GMP will lay the groundwork for ensuring the future of this spectacular place known as Biscayne National Park.
GMPs require the National Park Service to make hard decisions, some of which may be unpopular with some park constituents. All decisions reflect our best efforts to protect the resources and values for which these parks were established and to strike that delicate balance between protection and use. The public comment period for the Draft GMP began in August of 2011, with public comments being accepted through October 31, 2011. During this public comment period, park managers presented information and listened to public comments at three public meetings held in Miami, Florida City and Key Largo. Over 18,000 comments on the draft GMP were received; the park is reviewing these comments and refining the GMP with an anticipated completion in December 2012.
The preferred alternative - achieving a delicate balance. The draft GMP presented five alternatives ranging from no change in current management approaches to a heavily preservation-focused plan. The agency's preferred alternative, Alternative Four, proposes a Marine Reserve Zone, or MRZ, (a "no take" area where fishing of any kind would be prohibited) and non-combustion engine use zones to help balance the needs of park resources and park users. More than 90 percent of public comments supported alternatives containing an MRZ. The MRZ is intended to allow a portion of the reef a reprieve to recover from consumptive activities and offer visitors unparalleled recreational experiences, including the unique opportunity to see an intact and unfished coral reef ecosystem. Shipwrecks within the proposed MRZ are popular snorkeling and diving sites and submerged icons of America's significant maritime history. Although not the purpose of this proposed MRZ, case studies indicate that within a few years, recreational fishers fishing outside the reserve boundaries may benefit from "spillover" of fish swimming out of the MRZ into surrounding waters.
The proposed MRZ in the preferred alternative comprises only 7 percent of the park's waters. The remaining 151,000 acres, including 70 percent of the park's reef tract, would remain open to fishing.
There is a clear relationship between healthy fish populations and healthy reef ecosystems. Fish populations in the park have been declining for decades, with 64 percent of species observed less frequently in 2006-2007 than in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The preferred alternative sets aside a small portion of the park's waters as a means to protect the reef and help balance the competing interests of fishing and non-fishing visitors. Marine scientists throughout the world have found that MRZs are successful. After the MRZ has protected the area and allowed the reef ecosystem to recover, it may become one of South Florida's premier tourist destinations for divers, snorkelers, and marine enthusiasts.
What the preferred alternative WON'T do. The preferred alternative is NOT a Fishery Management Plan. The park is collaborating with the State of Florida and working to finalize a separate, park-wide Fishery Management Plan. Under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding, the park recognizes that the State believes MRZs are overly restrictive for fishery management and the State recognizes that the National Park Service will consider MRZs in the GMP for purposes other than fishery management. The preferred alternative will NOT close park waters to boaters. The proposed non-combustion engine use zones, commonly known as "pole and troll" zones, are designed to protect fragile resources along portions of the mainland shoreline adjacent to impenetrable mangrove forests, in shallow seagrass areas, and near bird rookeries.
Stay informed Although the public comment period has ended, you may still download the draft GMP at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/bisc (click on "General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement" in the table). If you would like to receive the most up-to-date information on public meetings, management plans, and other park planning news, please subscribe to our mailing list by sending us an email with "Subscribe" in the subject line.
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Did You Know?
Tunicates, or sea squirts, live on the roots of the red mangrove tree. These simple animals survive by filtering plankton out of seawater, and hold promise as the source of potent drugs used to fight tumors. Watch for them when snorkeling along Biscayne National Park's mangrove-fringed shoreline.