Home to the only shallow coral reef with its special marine life in the continental US, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary shelters amazing wildlife – sea turtles, manatees, dolphins, sharks and shore birds. It contains vast seagrass meadows that soak up huge quantities of carbon, helping to fight climate change. Over 6,000 species of fish, marine mammals and sensitive corals depend on a healthy ocean there but in the past decades 90% of the coral have died and tens of thousands of acres of seagrass have been carved up by boaters. Without the additional protections contained in a much stronger management plan for the Sanctuary, this marine life remains at risk.
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is a national treasure owned by all of us. It needs your help now to be restored for future generations of families, children, boaters and fishermen to enjoy.
Please sign the petition below which asks the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to create the very strongest Sanctuary management plan to protect and restore declining corals, seagrass meadows, and fish.
Our letter to NOAA Administrator Spinrad
August 2021
Dear Administrator Spinrad,
Home to sea turtles, manatees, and the continental U.S.’ largest coral reef, the Florida Keys is a national treasure—one that is increasingly at risk from human activities like overfishing, speeding boats that gouge the bottom, pollution, and coral disease.
As climate change looms, we need you to do everything you can to protect the seagrass beds, coral gardens, and complex ecosystems that make up this Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
We urge you to:
- Prevent propeller scars and wildlife collisions in the Keys’ sensitive habitats by slowing boats down in shallow waters throughout the Sanctuary. The vast seagrass meadows of the Keys also soak up immense amounts of carbon that help slow climate change if we don’t destroy them.
- Fully protect cohesive habitats from the shore to the deep sea, to help us better preserve intact natural ecosystems in at least three areas: at Boca Chica in the Lower Keys, Carysfort Reef in the Upper Keys, and the Tortugas Corridor to create pathways for sensitive marine life to move around the Sanctuary.
- Ensure that we are protecting healthy, deep, cooler coral reefs that will serve as coral refuges by adding the Pulley Ridge coral gardens to the Sanctuary boundaries.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
