Many of you will have already seen the historic announcement by President Obama on June 19th of a new National Ocean Policy - the full policy is presented on the White House website - http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/oceans.
The policy is the culmination of a year long effort by an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force that was charged with developing recommendations to enhance national ability to "maintain healthy, resilient, and sustainable oceans, coasts and Great lake resources for the benefit of present and future generations". The Alaska SeaLife Center provided written input to the Task Force and I also gave public testimony at their hearing in Anchorage on August 24th (see SeaLife Ship's Blog August, 2009)
The policy adopts the recommendations of the Interagency Task Force. Key initiatives include:
* establishment of a high level National Ocean Council that works in close coordination with a range of existing agencies (e.g. Ocean Research and Resources Advisory Panel which is meeting at the ASLC next week) and in close consultation with Regional Advisory Committees which will oversee spatial planning efforts in 9 regions - Alaska/Arctic is defined as one of those regions;
* development of a framework for stewardship of oceans and coasts that coordinates Federal activities with those of other levels of government, the public and private sector - coastal and marine spatial planning will be a major element of that framework. Coastal and marine spatial planning identifies areas most suitable for various types or classes of activities in order to reduce conflicts among uses, reduce environmental impacts, facilitate compatible uses, and preserve critical ecosystem services to meet economic, environmental, security, and social objectives;
* mechanisms to enable international coordination, including pursuing US accession to the Law of the Sea Convention (a topic that was the subject of an international meeting in Seward last year); and
* support for ocean stewardship in a fiscally responsible manner.
The Alaska SeaLife Center has been working with our many Federal, State, local, academic and non-government partners to provide input to the new policy and is seeking to play an even greater role in implementation of this new policy in Alaska as part of our mission commitment to improved ocean stewardship. This initiative comes at a perfect time for the Center as it meshes perfectly with our Deep Blue 2020 vision and strategic plan.
Over the next few months we expect to ramp up our efforts to promote public understanding of key elements of the policy (e.g. to help Alaskans understand what coastal and marine spatial planning is and is not).
Over the next few months we expect to ramp up our efforts to promote public understanding of key elements of the policy (e.g. to help Alaskans understand what coastal and marine spatial planning is and is not).
Please let us know what more we could do to help you better understand this new policy and engage in the new initiatives it will spur.
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