The need to protect corals from damage by ship groundings was one major reason given by the government and environmental groups for the 1990 establishment of the FKNMS. The other was to protect reefs zones from oil drilling. Yet the majority of us Keys locals did not believe that a marine sanctuary was needed to address these issues. The well agreed upon environmental concerns regionally were poor water quality in the Bay, the need for sewage treatment in the Keys, and pollution coming from those pigs in South Florida. Those opposed to the sanctuary believed that none of these concerns would be better addressed by the additional layer of bureaucracy created by the FKNMS given that these issues were already being addressed by more than 30 agencies and non-profits. Those in favor suggested that the multiple agencies working on the issues had been inadequately addressing such problems.

Keys’ locals formed the 1,500- person Conch Coalition to oppose the sanctuary. They engaged in letter writing campaigns, sent hundreds of coconuts with anti-sanctuary messages painted on them to representatives in Washington, and held public speeches and demonstrations. Activists even hung NOAA’s two main sanctuary managers in effigy. Through the efforts of anti-sanctuary groups (Conch Coalition, Monroe County Commercial Fishermen’s Association, and other fisher groups) and individuals (many treasure salvagers), the no-take zone was reduced from six percent to one percent in the 1996 final management plan.

FYI: The six percent designated as no-take zone in the draft management plan was already a major reduction from the 20 percent initially considered in 1990. Yet, despite these major concessions with regard to the extent of fully protected areas within the proposed FKNMS, the people of Monroe County were still not in favor of the establishment of a marine sanctuary in their backyards.

The citizenry of the Keys were troubled not only that the sanctuary would not address key local concerns, but also disturbed that to overlay an appointed bureaucracy on top of those duly elected to manage resource use would be a violation of the democratic process. As such, the people of the Keys (i.e. Monroe County, including the fiercely independent people of Key West) would become equivalent subjects in a NOAA administered colony.

Through the Conch Coalition, people of Monroe County pushed for a vote on the sanctuary issue. NOAA and the green groups that supported them (The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, the Center for Marine Conservation, and Last Stand) were against holding a vote but put significant funds into a pro-sanctuary campaign after Congressman Peter Deutsch promised to listen to the people with regard to their votes.

When the votes were counted, the people had voted against the existence of the marine sanctuary in the (non-binding) November 5, 1996 referendum. In the aftermath of the vote, NOAA reported that people had misunderstood what they were voting for or had been swayed by false, anti-sanctuary propaganda. Deutsch had no comment when he went forward and supported the sanctuary in spite of the vote.

Those against the sanctuary report that people knew exactly what they were voting for and that they were tired of public hearings which allowed for input but where they often had to wait for hours and where they felt they were not listened to. To them the vote was in line with earlier, anti-government activity in the region, the most notorious of which was the 1982 secession of Monroe County from the United States and the declaration on the independent Conch Republic.

The anti-sanctuary forces had some wealthy backers, including Mel Fisher, who found the wrecked Spanish galleon the Atocha. Fisher was a leader not only of the Conch Republic, but also opposed the sanctuary on the grounds that it would discourage treasure salvage by requiring lengthy permit applications and complicated, multi-stage archaeological and environmental assessments. In spite of considerable anti-sanctuary sentiment and the anti-sanctuary vote, the FKNMS was fully implemented in 1997.