Right Call Made On Canyon Effort

Right Call Made On Canyon Effort
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The National Aquarium in Baltimore deserves credit for being receptive and responsive to the arguments months against its proposed Urban National Marine Sanctuary designation for the Baltimore Canyon, one of Ocean City’s three rich offshore fishing grounds.

Kudos also goes to the local fishing community who rallied together into a collective voice and worked with their elected representatives to ensure their concerns and opposition were heard loud and clear. Some fishing-related businesses even hired an attorney to argue their case for them. The opposition movement had a consistent voice in this from the beginning. Ultimately, that’s what led to the effort being dropped.

In his letter to NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries Director John Armor, National Aquarium CEO John Racanelli wrote, “we have determined that the timing is not right for this nomination” and “we plan to use these next two years to gather further community input regarding the importance and value of providing permanent protection to treasures like the Baltimore Canyon.”

Racanelli’s letter comes on the heels of letters to NOAA and relevant officials critical of the proposed designation from the fishing community, Senator Jim Mathias, Delegate Mary Beth Carozza, Congressman Andy Harris and others.

In our view, this situation represents the government process at its finest. It would be irrational to blame the aquarium and NOAA for proposing the designation, which has sound intentions. The aquarium wanted to extend the current protections “to protect a national treasure and inspire young minds,” as Racanelli states. However, the designation simply goes too far in trying to achieve that goal.

We believe existing measures are enough to accomplish the aquarium’s goals when it started the urban sanctuary designation process last fall. There’s no need to add this new level of safeguards, which may or may not lead to fears of recreational fishing being prohibited in the canyon becoming reality.

In this case, the extreme hypotheticals associated with the risks were far greater than the reward. The process may have rubbed some in the fishing industry the wrong way from the beginning, but the fact remains in the end the proper conclusion was reached because opponents used a sound and reasonable approach to getting their points of view across.

About The Author: Steven Green

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The writer has been with The Dispatch in various capacities since 1995, including serving as editor and publisher since 2004. His previous titles were managing editor, staff writer, sports editor, sales account manager and copy editor. Growing up in Salisbury before moving to Berlin, Green graduated from Worcester Preparatory School in 1993 and graduated from Loyola University Baltimore in 1997 with degrees in Communications (journalism concentration) and Political Science.