Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary is located at the mouth of Mass Bay, a short run from ports in Boston, Plymouth, Salem and Gloucester.  It features fishing, whale watching, significant marine animal habitat and quite a few shipwrecks.

NOAA released the Draft Management Plan (DMP) in April 2008. In short, this plan would give NOAA the power to significantly restrict or eliminate SCUBA diving in the Sanctuary, therefore being vocal about this DMP should be a priority for us at NEUE.

From the Shipwreck Divers Website: "The current incarnation of the DMP does not contain actual regulations, but instead transforms the approved 2004 Action Plans into a set of strategies that form the basis for creating actual regulations, and accompanying designation document changes.  In accepting the DMP in its current form, the public is essentially giving NOAA license to regulate activities in the Sanctuary unchecked by endorsing their strategies -- empowering NOAA to implement management practices and ultimately regulations under the guise that they were agreed to by the public when in fact they were not! It is our position that the DMP, derived from an Action Plan that we have rejected since 2004, does not address the needs of the dive community and does not afford appropriate access to shipwrecks in the bank."

Public Commenting Sessions concluded on June 19, 2008. The deadline to submit your written comments has been extended to October 3, 2008.

 Additional information and discussion can be found in this NEUE thread.

There are no more public commenting sessions, but you can still submit written comments, due October 3, 2008.  I strongly suggest that everyone with ANY interest in local wreck diving and/or public access to public lands take the time to write a letter, whether you attending a public commenting session or not.

Please review the DMP, the Banknotes, and AP Highlights documents and submit written comments.
Written comments must be postmarked no later than August 4, 2008.

Mail comments to:
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
175 Edward Foster Road
Scituate, MA 02066

Hand Deliver Comments
Comments may be hand delivered during normal business hours, Monday through
Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through October 3, 2008.

Deliver to :
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
175 Edward Foster Road
Scituate, MA 02066

Electronically Mail Comments
Comments may be submitted by e-mail no later than August 4, 2008.
E-mail to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Fax to: 781-545-8036

Summary of Draft Management Plan Concerns

The entire Draft Management Plan (DMP) is rather lengthy, but the parts that are of vital interest to us as wreck divers is under 20 pages AND full of pretty pictures.

Link to the Diver-Vital Parts of the DMP AND The 2004 Marine Heritage Resources Action Plan which has been incorpated by reference into the current DMP, although it's full wording has not been included in the DMP itself.

And if you want the whole thing: Link to the full DMP on Sancutary Website

Further, information from Heather Knowles:
Many people have found the draft management plan "murky" and hard to work through in order to present a message to their constituencies. The sanctuary issued this document that further distills the plan down to some "highlights" - if you can actually call them that.

This document shows the weaknesses of the DMP quite well.  For example, with respect to marine mammal strikes - the sanctuary suggests "voluntary speed restrictions" - OK.... but unless the price of fuel becomes extraordinarily higher, I don't see commercial freighters and tankers "volunteering" to cross a sanctuary that spans nearly the entire SW portion of the Gulf of Maine at 10 knots.

The most compelling disconnect for me though is reading words like "work with", "promote", "develop", "voluntary", "evaluate", "initiate", "recommend" throughout the entire document UNTIL we get to the Maritime Heritage section where we see much stronger language to suggest "amendment sanctuary regulations" to protect historic shipwreck sites. 

The draft plan is weak where it needs to be strong, and too controlling where it needs to be flexible or less concerned.

For a document that you may find useful, please see this post in the NEUE forums.