Ocean Zoning Discussion Forum

Editor’s Note:  The following story presents no data in support of its assertions regarding the impact of the proposed activities on marine mammals.

By Rosemary Ahtuangaruak

23 November, 2010
Climatestorytellers.org

This week families across the country will be celebrating Thanksgiving—sharing food and telling stories. Here is my story about our food and culture that would be destroyed if Shell Oil gets the permit to drill for oil in our homeland—the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

Since 1986 I lived in Nuiqsut, an Inupiat community on the Beaufort Sea coast of Arctic Alaska. In 1991 I graduated from the University of Washington Medex Northwest Physician Assistant program and was employed as a health aide in Nuiqsut for 14 years. Nearly 8 years ago I helped to found REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands) to represent my interests.

I have raised my family in Nuiqsut. I have one daughter, four sons, two granddaughters, and four grandsons. I live a very traditional lifestyle—hunting, fishing, whaling, gathering, and teaching our family and community members the traditional and cultural activities as my elders taught me. We hunt and eat various birds, including ptarmigan, ducks and geese; fish, including char, salmon, whitefish, dolly varden, grayling, pike, trout, and cisco; land mammals, including caribou, moose and muskox; and marine mammals, including bearded seals, walrus, beluga and bowhead whales. We harvest berries, plants roots and herbs. We work together in harvesting plants and animals.

From: Governor of Maryland 

Potential one gigawatt wind farm could generate thousands of jobs.

Governor Martin O’Malley and the Maryland Energy Administration today joined the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) in announcing a significant step forward in bringing offshore wind power generation to Maryland’s coast.

The federal government, which controls the Outer Continental Shelf, has accepted the planning recommendations of the Maryland Offshore Wind Task Force and today issued both a Request for Interest (RFI) and a map of an offshore wind leasing area in federal waters adjacent to Maryland’s Atlantic Coast.

Today’s announcement makes Maryland only the second state in the nation to reach this point in the process.

“Today’s announcement marks another step forward for Maryland’s new economy,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “By harnessing the outstanding wind resources off of Maryland’s coast, we can create thousands of green collar jobs, reduce harmful air pollution, and bring much needed, additional clean energy to Maryland.”

Governor O’Malley has made offshore wind a priority in Maryland’s efforts generate 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2022, citing the potential for job creation and the abundant wind resources available.

DailyPress.com

Ocean Conservancy expert says solutions are simpler

By Kathy Van Mullekom, kvanmullekom@dailypress.com | 10:34 PM EDT, November 2, 2010

When federal agencies managing waters off Massachusetts learned an important shipping lane directed vessels through the heart of the feeding and breeding grounds of endangered right whales at Stellwagen Bank, the solution was soon simple:

Redirect ships 2 miles to the north and significantly reduce the likelihood of them striking whales.

It’s the kind of information that can be shared and a strategy implemented for the good of all concerned, according to Sandra Whitehouse, marine environmental policy adviser for the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy — http://www.OceanConservancy.org.

“A lot of it is about trying to be fair,” says Whitehouse, also team leader for the conservancy’s coastal and marine spatial planning program. Environmentalists like Whitehouse will work with the new National Ocean Council and its goals to protect the use and health of nine regions’ ocean, coastal and Great Lakes areas.

“It’s science based and participatory, and will include socio-economic goals.”

By Chad Marriott

In response to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s federal funding opportunity (“FFO”) to support Regional Ocean Partnerships (“ROPs”), the West Coast Governors’ Agreement on Ocean Health (“WCGA”) will hold workshops in California, Oregon, and Washington next month to help develop its proposal for a portion of the funding.