Ocean Zone News Blog

By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

President Barack Obama’s Ocean Policy Task Force, charged with preparing by mid-September a list of priorities for improving ocean stewardship, heard a full spectrum of ideas Aug. 21 in Anchorage from residents and developers whose future is tied to Alaska’s oceans.
For more than three hours, the task force, led by Nancy Sutley, the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, listened to testimony from a cross-section of Alaskans, including resource developers, scientists, subsistence harvesters and commercial fishermen and other coastal residents.

Vancouver — From Friday’s Globe and Mail

A federal court judge dismissed a lawsuit by a group of environmentalists that was seeking to stop the Minister of Foreign Affairs from granting clearance to a U.S. vessel that plans to conduct seismic tests in a protected area 250 kilometres southwest of Vancouver Island.

Living Oceans and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society had taken New York’s Columbia University, Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and Minister of Foreign Affairs to court over a U.S. geological research project that wants to conduct seismic tests in the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents Marine Protected Area.

When we look out to the blue horizon, the ocean seems like a calm, vast space. But what we see on the surface of the water is deceiving — the ocean is alive with activity and it is crowded with wildlife and industrial uses. Like urban sprawl on land, the demand for space in our oceans and on our coasts is growing. New renewable energy and aquaculture facilities, commercial fishing, recreation, offshore drilling and shipping are all competing for space, and our demands continue to grow. Our ocean is getting crowded at a time when it is vulnerable to major changes.

White House Task Force Crafting ‘Marching Orders’ for Managing Oceans

The Obama administration is working to craft a new overarching national ocean policy that could change how federal agencies address new projects at sea — from offshore energy development to aquaculture to marine conservation.

A blog about energy, the environment and the bottom line.
Top administration officials last week kicked off what will be a cross-country tour of public listening sessions on the plan, the first public events for a group that has worked in overdrive, but under the radar, throughout the summer to craft the new policy.

By Katie DeRosa, Canwest News ServiceAugust 23, 2009

VICTORIA — The federal government has granted an American research ship permission to conduct seismic blasts in a protected marine area off Vancouver Island, despite warnings from environmental groups that it will threaten endangered whales.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon gave the go-ahead Friday night for the government-owned RV Marcus Langseth to conduct blasts in the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents Marine Protected Area, 250 kilometres southwest of Vancouver Island.

Ecojustice, acting for the Living Oceans Society and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, plans to argue the decision in Federal Court, claiming that the blasts violate Canadian environmental laws.