April 2, 2008 — A 2000 executive order transferring some 30,000 acres of submerged lands off St. Thomas and St. Croix to the federal government has continued to impact the local fishing industry negatively and needs to be rescinded, fishermen told senators Wednesday.
The lands were turned over as part of a federal initiative to protect local coral reefs and have since been used as national underwater monuments, fishermen said during a meeting of the Senate Rules and Judiciary Committee. The only thing the transfer has produced, however, is limited access to V.I. fishing grounds and a step toward the extinction of local fishermen, they added.
"The monuments have not been effective in protecting our coral resources — instead, they are damaging the ability of local fishermen to fish for the public and to feed their families," said Julian Magras, board chairman of the St. Thomas Fishermen's Association.
Magras' statements were echoed throughout the hearing by other local fishermen, including David Berry, who said the federal government's move to expand submerged land areas around St. John and St. Croix is "is just one of the many ways the federal government has assaulted our culture and heritage." Limiting access to local waters has been exacerbated by various bank closings around the territory and bans on catching such fish as tuna, which are not extended to other non-local populations, he added.
In hopes of returning the land to local control, senators passed a resolution Wednesday petitioning the president and U.S. Congress to rescind the executive order.
"This is a major thing — it goes across the spectrum of issues where the federal government in more ways than one continues to usurp their power and remind us as an unincorporated territory how powerless we are," said Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone, the resolution's sponsor.
The creation of the underwater monument off St. John may also be illegal, since the V.I. government is considered the "rightful owner" of the submerged lands, said Winston Brathwaite, legal counsel for the Department of Planning and Natural Resource's Coastal Zone Management Division.
In the Submerged Lands Act of 1974, the federal government "vested its rights to own and control the lands used to create the monument in the V.I. government," Brathwaite said. He plans to discuss the issue with DPNR commissioner Robert Mathes to determine what legal action the government can take to ensure the submerged lands get turned back over to local control.
The resolution passed unanimously, along with the nominations of four people to the V.I. Real Estate Appraisers Board. The additional board members would finally give the body enough members for a quorum and the ability to approve certain documents — such as meeting minutes and bylaws — outstanding since 2005.
The board has functioned with only two members for the past two years, the nominees said Wednesday. They are Terryl Diggs-de Jongh, Noreen Dunn, Delrease P. Roberts and Elissa Runyan. Upon confirmation from the full Senate body, the board's first actions would be to ratify some longstanding meeting minutes, and make sure the territory is up to snuff with federal regulations designed to "sanction, discipline and monitor" all appraisers doing business in the territory, the nominees said.
Present during Tuesday's meeting were Sens. Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Louis P. Hill, Malone, Usie R. Richards, Carmen M. Wesselhoft, James Weber III and Alvin L. Williams.
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