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Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale
National Marine Sanctuary
The Sanctuary has completed its first 5-year management plan review in 2002. Click on Upcoming Events for the latest developments on future management plan reviews.
What is a Management Plan?
A Sanctuary management plan is a site-specific planning and management document that describes the objectives, policies, and activities for a sanctuary. Management plans generally outline regulatory goals, describe boundaries, identify staffing and budget needs, and set priorities and performance measures for resource protection, research, and education programs. They also guide the development of future management plan activities.
Why review a Management Plan?
Management plan review provides an opportunity for sanctuary staff and the public to shape the future direction and management of each sanctuary. In general, during a five-year review, a Sanctuary may evaluate, and possibly revise, their operation and management framework, program areas such as education, and research, site-specific regulations, and the appropriateness of the boundary and management zones within it.
The National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP) is required by law to periodically review sanctuary management plans to ensure that sanctuary sites continue to best conserve, protect, and enhance their nationally significant living and cultural resources.
In 1997, at the time of designation, NOAA also made a commitment to the State of Hawaii that five years after the original management plan and regulations became effective, NOAA, in consultation with the State of Hawaii, would evaluate the progress made toward implementing the management plan, regulations, and goals for the Sanctuary and would then resubmit the management plan and regulations in their entirety, as far as they affect State waters, to the Governor for his approval in 2002.
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Click here to download the State of the Sanctuary Report. (pdf)
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In addition, Section 2306 of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback whale National Marine Sanctuary Act (HINMSA) required that NOAA prepare, in consultation with interested persons and appropriate Federal, State, and local authorities, a comprehensive management plan and implementing Sanctuary regulations, in accordance with the National Marine Sanctuary Act (NMSA), to achieve the purposes and objectives of the Sanctuary. (Click for the HIHWNMS Act and NMS Act)
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