Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska: Vessel Management Plan Regulations

The National Park Service (NPS) is revising the regulations, including vessel quotas, that were established to protect the endangered humpback whale and other resources within Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The regulations authorize a modest increase in cruise ship, charter boat and private boat use, to be offset by specific mitigation measures. The regulations do not authorize an increase in the maximum number of motor vessels permitted to use the bay on any given day. Subject to the existing maximum daily limit of two cruise ships per day, the regulations authorize an immediate 30-percent increase in cruise ship traffic during the 1996 and 1997 summer seasons (June 1 through August 31). Additionally, but contingent upon the completion of studies demonstrating that a further increase in cruise ship traffic would be consistent with protection of the values and purposes of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, the regulations could allow up to an additional 42-percent increase (i.e., a total increase of 72% from existing 1995 levels) in cruise ship traffic beginning with the 1998 summer season. For each summer season thereafter, the regulations authorize the NPS to adjust the number of cruise ship entries, subject to the maximum daily limit of two vessels, based on available scientific and other information and applicable authorities. NPS has also revised current restrictions on seasonal entries and use-days for charter and private boats to authorize an 8-percent increase in charter boat traffic and a 15 percent increase in private boat traffic beginning with the 1996 summer season. The regulations also extend and codify park compendium vessel regulations for the protection of park resource values. Several additional measures, such as the requirement for air, water and underwater noise pollution minimization plans from cruise ships, mitigate the potential resource impacts associated with the increase in vessel traffic. Finally, to protect park resource val