[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 14 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 7364-7367]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-2104]


 
 
                         Presidential Documents 
 
 

  Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 14 / Monday, January 22, 2001 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 7364]]


                Proclamation 7399 of January 17, 2001

                
Establishment of the Virgin Islands Coral Reef 
                National Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, in the 
                submerged lands off the island of St. John in the U.S. 
                Virgin Islands, contains all the elements of a 
                Caribbean tropical marine ecosystem. This designation 
                furthers the protection of the scientific objects 
                included in the Virgin Islands National Park, created 
                in 1956 and expanded in 1962. The biological 
                communities of the monument live in a fragile, 
                interdependent relationship and include habitats 
                essential for sustaining and enhancing the tropical 
                marine ecosystem: mangroves, sea grass beds, coral 
                reefs, octocoral hardbottom, sand communities, shallow 
                mud and fine sediment habitat, and algal plains. The 
                fishery habitats, deeper coral reefs, octocoral 
                hardbottom, and algal plains of the monument are all 
                objects of scientific interest and essential to the 
                long-term sustenance of the tropical marine ecosystem.

                The monument is within the Virgin Islands, which lie at 
                the heart of the insular Caribbean biome, and is 
                representative of the Lesser Antillean biogeographic 
                province. The island of St. John rises from a platform 
                that extends several miles from shore before plunging 
                to the abyssal depths of the Anegada trough to the 
                south and the Puerto Rican trench to the north, the 
                deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean. This platform 
                contains a multitude of species that exist in a 
                delicate balance, interlinked through complex 
                relationships that have developed over tens of 
                thousands of years.

                As part of this important ecosystem, the monument 
                contains biological objects including several 
                threatened and endangered species, which forage, breed, 
                nest, rest, or calve in the waters. Humpback whales, 
                pilot whales, four species of dolphins, brown pelicans, 
                roseate terns, least terns, and the hawksbill, 
                leatherback, and green sea turtles all use portions of 
                the monument. Countless species of reef fish, 
                invertebrates, and plants utilize these submerged lands 
                during their lives, and over 25 species of sea birds 
                feed in the waters. Between the nearshore nursery 
                habitats and the shelf edge spawning sites in the 
                monument are habitats that play essential roles during 
                specific developmental stages of reef-associated 
                species, including spawning migrations of many reef 
                fish species and crustaceans.

                The submerged monument lands within Hurricane Hole 
                include the most extensive and well-developed mangrove 
                habitat on St. John. The Hurricane Hole area is an 
                important nursery area for reef associated fish and 
                invertebrates, instrumental in maintaining water 
                quality by filtering and trapping sediment and debris 
                in fresh water runoff from the fast land, and essential 
                to the overall functioning and productivity of regional 
                fisheries. Numerous coral reef-associated species, 
                including the spiny lobster, queen conch, and Nassau 
                grouper, transform from planktonic larvae to bottom-
                dwelling juveniles in the shallow nearshore habitats of 
                Hurricane Hole. As they mature, they move offshore and 
                take up residence in the deeper coral patch reefs, 
                octocoral hardbottom, and algal plains of the submerged 
                monument lands to the south and north of St. John.

[[Page 7365]]

                The monument lands south of St. John are predominantly 
                deep algal plains with scattered areas of raised hard 
                bottom. The algal plains include communities of mostly 
                red and calcareous algae with canopies as much as half 
                a meter high. The raised hard bottom is sparsely 
                colonized with corals, sponges, gorgonians, and other 
                invertebrates, thus providing shelter for lobster, 
                groupers, and snappers as well as spawning sites for 
                some reef fish species. These algal plains and raised 
                hard bottom areas link the shallow water reef, sea 
                grass, and mangrove communities with the deep water 
                shelf and shelf edge communities of fish and 
                invertebrates.

                Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 
                U.S.C. 431), authorizes the President, in his 
                discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic 
                landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and 
                other objects of historic or scientific interest that 
                are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the 
                Government of the United States to be national 
                monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of 
                land, the limits of which in all cases shall be 
                confined to the smallest area compatible with the 
                proper care and management of the objects to be 
                protected.

                WHEREAS it appears that it would be in the public 
                interest to reserve such lands as a national monument 
                to be known as the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National 
                Monument:

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by the authority vested in me 
                by section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 
                16 U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that there are hereby set 
                apart and reserved as the Virgin Islands Coral Reef 
                National Monument, for the purpose of protecting the 
                objects identified above, all lands and interests in 
                lands owned or controlled by the United States within 
                the boundaries of the area described on the map 
                entitled ``Virgin Islands Coral Reef National 
                Monument'' attached to and forming a part of this 
                proclamation. The Federal land and interests in land 
                reserved consist of approximately 12,708 marine acres, 
                which is the smallest area compatible with the proper 
                care and management of the objects to be protected.

                All Federal lands and interests in lands within the 
                boundaries of this monument are hereby appropriated and 
                withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection, 
                sale, or leasing or other disposition under the public 
                land laws, including but not limited to withdrawal from 
                location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, and 
                from disposition under all laws relating to mineral and 
                geothermal leasing, other than by exchange that 
                furthers the protective purposes of the monument. For 
                the purpose of protecting the objects identified above, 
                the Secretary shall prohibit all boat anchoring, except 
                for emergency or authorized administrative purposes.

                For the purposes of protecting the objects identified 
                above, the Secretary shall prohibit all extractive 
                uses, except that the Secretary may issue permits for 
                bait fishing at Hurricane Hole and for blue runner 
                (hard nose) line fishing in the area south of St. John, 
                to the extent that such fishing is consistent with the 
                protection of the objects identified in this 
                proclamation.

                Lands and interests in lands within the monument not 
                owned or controlled by the United States shall be 
                reserved as a part of the monument upon acquisition of 
                title or control thereto by the United States.

                The Secretary of the Interior shall manage the monument 
                through the National Park Service, pursuant to 
                applicable legal authorities, to implement the purposes 
                of this proclamation. The National Park Service will 
                manage the monument in a manner consistent with 
                international law.

                The Secretary of the Interior shall prepare a 
                management plan, including the management of vessels in 
                the monument, within 3 years, which addresses any 
                further specific actions necessary to protect the 
                objects identified in this proclamation.

                The establishment of this monument is subject to valid 
                existing rights.

[[Page 7366]]

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke 
                any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; 
                however, the national monument shall be the dominant 
                reservation.

                Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not 
                to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature 
                of this monument and not to locate or settle upon any 
                of the lands thereof.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand one, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

Billing code 3195-01-P

[[Page 7367]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD22JA01.185


[FR Doc. 01-2104 Filed 1-19-01; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-C