St. Croix fishermen turned out in force Wednesday night to register their opposition to the Clinton administration’s plans to expand Buck Island Reef National Monument.
The gathering was the first of three town meetings on St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John called by Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen to discuss the U.S. Department of Interior’s proposal to expand the submerged lands around Buck Island by more than 18,000 acres. Interior has also recommended to Clinton the creation of the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument off of St. John. That move would include 12,708 acres of federal submerged lands within the three-mile belt off of St. John, including Hurricane Hole and areas north and south of the island.
But on Wednesday, the focus was on St. Croix and the effect the monument designation would have on the island’s fishermen. Christensen has written Clinton about her concerns. Clinton, meanwhile, has less than two weeks to approve the monuments.
Until that decision is made, however, nobody but Clinton administration officials know what activities would be prohibited in the expanded monument area. And that has fishermen worried.
"It’s the most rich area to catch fish," Jose Sanchez said of the proposed monument boundary extension around Buck Island. "It’s like telling us to stay home and not go to sea anymore."
Several fishermen said that viable fishing areas around St. Croix are few. They said the south shore has been impacted by the Hovensa and Alcoa refineries and by rum distillery and sewage outfalls.
In addition, areas off Hamm’s Bluff to the northwest are too far for fishermen in small boats to get to. That leaves only the productive areas to the east of Buck Island.
"If you start taking some here and start taking away there, we aren’t going to have anything left," said Frank Johnson.
On top of the concerns for the local fishing industry was the position taken by Virdin Brown, a former V.I. senator and head of the territory’s former resource management agency, the Department of Conservation and Cultural Affairs.
Brown, now a voting member of the Caribbean Fisheries Management Council, contends that the submerged land Interior is trying to take for monuments off of St. Croix and St. John belong to the Virgin Islands.
"The (Interior) secretary is intending to . . .take away . . . with the cooperation of the governor, 30,000 acres that belong to the people of the Virgin Islands," he said, adding that DPNR has administered the waters under the Coastal Zone Management Act.
"The land belongs to the Virgin Islands and can’t be taken away by executive fiat," he said.
Interior Department officials contend that the monuments need to be established to protect coral reef resources, which in turn will help revive a depleted fishery. But the fishermen said hurricanes, not their practices, are the reason for the decline in the reef.
Meanwhile, Toby Tobias, a marine biologist with the DPNR, said he was "somewhat confused" by what Interior was trying to protect. He noted that reef structures don’t exist in water much deeper than 100 feet. The proposed boundary extension for the Buck Island monument, however, encompasses water as deep as 5,000 feet, he said, adding the area is already administered by DPNR.
Tobias also said that according to commercial catch records, the proposed boundary extension covers two zones administered by his division.
"And they are the most important on St. Croix for commercial fishing," he said.
Both Tobias and Delegate Christensen suggested that Interior scale back the size of the proposed boundary around Buck Island. But even then, they noted, exactly what activities will be prohibited in the monuments are unknown.
"We’re all coming from the same point of no information here," Christensen said.
The Antiquities Act authorizes the President to create national monuments on federal land without Congressional approval in order to protect objects of historic and scientific interest. Because Clinton, as president, is not subject to the National Environmental Protection Act, the proposed monuments do not have to have an Environmental Impact Statement performed before they are designated.
The extent of protection to be provided to each area — and the types of uses that would continue to be permitted — will be made public once the President decides to accept the Interior secretary's recommendations, Interior officials have said. Because Clinton has signed off on a dozen of Babbitt’s earlier designations, he is expected to approve the latest recommendations.
More town meetings will be held on Jan. 11, on St. John at the Julius Sprauve School at 3 p.m. and on St. Thomas later in the day at the Frenchtown Community Center at 6 p.m.