Release of the final Tortugas Reserve Plan is an historic milestone for this community-led effort. During the past two years, NOAA has worked with local commercial and recreational fishing interests, divers, scientists, conservationists, fishery management councils, federal agencies, the State of Florida, and citizens. Implementation of the Tortugas Ecological Reserve is pending final approval by the State of Florida. The locally-driven and fully open process that developed the Tortugas Ecological Reserve Plan is an excellent model for how to design and establish marine protected areas by involving the full array of stakeholders. The IMO's actions will allow all nations to protect sensitive habitats by marking these areas on all international navigational charts.
Anchors can do serious damage to coral reefs.
Large ship anchors are usually bigger than cars. This brief video shows the awful damage that anchors can do. As you can see, an anchor can destroy in seconds thousands of years of coral reef growth. With strong support from the shipping industry, many other nations and the International Maritime Organization, ship pilots will be directed to safe anchorage areas away from the coral reefs. I especially want to thank the Chamber of Shipping of America and their colleagues in the shipping industry for their support.