August 17, 2022 — One of the world’s first marine protected areas dating back to 1984, the Ocullina Coral Reef was about to be opened to rock shrimp trawling. But National Marine Fisheries Service has rejected that option over potential damage to the reef ecosystem.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council proposed Amendment 10 to its coral and reefs management plan. It came as a surprise to conservation groups, as it suggested the opening part of the Oculina Coral Reef, a 90-mile strip of reefs off the central east coast of Florida, to fishing activities.
In 1984 the council designated part of the Oculina Bank as protected habitat, prohibiting use of bottom trawls, bottom longlines, dredges, fish traps, and to mitigate the risk of damage by fishing gear to Oculina coral.
In 2000, the council further expanded the protected area, and again in 2014 when it extended the protected area northward – including the area proposed in 2022 for reopening to rock shrimp fishing.
Information on shrimp fishing effort in the area and its economic value to the rock shrimp portion of the shrimp fishery was discussed by the council very late in the development of the 2014 amendment, Coral Amendment 8. Rock shrimp fishermen had then requested adjustment of the area boundary, and provided coordinates of the important fishing grounds in that area.