Provincetown is the gateway to the Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, but you’re forgiven if you didn’t know that.
In 1995, Don Young (R-Alaska), chair of the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, generously renamed the sanctuary after the Cape Cod Congressman who was instrumental in convincing President George H.W. Bush to sign it into law.
That is all it says about Studds on the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s official web page. The rest of the site offers no other details about him, not even his name.
Provincetown’s Gerry Studds, an openly gay man who found refuge in this queer-friendly community, left a lasting legacy. He leveraged his Congressional power to protect Cape Cod’s people, its fish, and our planet.
By the late 20th century, human activity threatened to despoil Stellwagen Bank. Ships were dumping radioactive medical waste near the fishing grounds. The area was also used for gravel mining. In 1982, Provincetown environmentalists led by Charles “Stormy” Mayo promoted the idea of declaring Stellwagen a sanctuary. By 1991 the activists had presented NOAA officials with over 20,000 signatures requesting the designation.
The 1992 law that created the Stellwagen Bank sanctuary and improved all marine sanctuaries was just one of Studds’s many fish-protection laws that year. He was a true conservationist, not merely an advocate for the fishing industry.
His accomplishments include maintaining the Striped Bass Conservation Act, which he authored in 1984. A Studds-sponsored study revealed that recreational fishermen were depleting the stock too rapidly. Striped bass, which spawn in freshwater estuaries near the Hudson River and Chesapeake Bay before migrating into the Atlantic, were protected by the law that established a monitoring system and banned net fishing for the species. The law was effective, leading to a resurgence in the striped bass population. Fishermen welcomed this success, facilitating easy passage of the 1991 reauthorization.
Studds also fought drift-net fishing. While American vessels were prohibited from using drift nets in international waters, boats from Japan, Taiwan, and Korea would deploy miles-long nets between two vessels, indiscriminately catching marine animals. Studds’s 1987 research legislation revealed that tens of thousands of dolphins, sea birds, and turtles were unintentionally caught. He then introduced a bill imposing trade sanctions and port access restrictions on countries permitting drift-net fishing.
Studds helped fishermen cope with the effects of decades of overfishing. He predicted that whale watching could become a $100 million annual industry. Boats departing from Boston, Plymouth, and Provincetown now carry over a million passengers annually, contributing significantly to local economies while aiding in the recovery of North Atlantic whale populations.
While some Cape Cod residents may express frustration with tourism, long-time inhabitants recall a period when the region’s economy seemed hopeless, with the shipbuilding and fishing industries devastated by overfishing, deindustrialization, and postwar drawdowns.
Congressman Studds initiated numerous efforts to revitalize the local economy. The decision to name such a significant landmark after Congress’s first openly gay member undoubtedly inspired hope in Provincetown’s residents, particularly during a time when hope was scarce.
As an adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, I played a role in securing federal funds for NOAA’s climate efforts, including programs leading to the proposed Studds Stellwagen structure on MacMillan Pier. The erasure of Studds’s name does a disservice to the legacies of those who collaborated with him to improve Cape Cod’s future.
Oct. 11 is National Coming Out Day. Perhaps by then NOAA can come out of the closet, acknowledge that federal law declares it the Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, and fix its website.
Russell Kenneth DeGraff was the chief climate, technology, and science adviser to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from 2011 to 2023. He lives in Provincetown.
