Ocean Zone News Blog

Vermont Law School

On November 4th, Energizer Brian Martin and I had the privilege of attending the New England Regional Ocean Law and Policy Workshop: Offshore Wind Facility Siting. The goals of the workshop were to 1) identify common legal issues encountered by New England state and federal managers when considering offshore wind; 2) understand the research, work and progress done on thus far on these issues; 3) discuss coordinated efforts to address these legal issues and; 4) consider future collaborative coordination between researchers (at academic intuitions) and management agencies. The workshop aimed to identify what legal barriers existed in the development of offshore wind facilities and how collaborative and coordinated efforts across agencies and with research institutions could provide solutions and generate the development of offshore wind facilities.

A number of scientific organizations are working on pint-size robots that will act much like schools of fish to explore and monitor the oceans.

Scientists have so far used their understanding of physics and fluid dynamics, combined with what direct observations are available, to infer how the ocean works. These inferences remain, in many cases, best guesses – albeit very well-informed best guesses. But scientists inevitably dream of a day when they can directly observe the goings-on of the ocean.

That day, it seems, is moving closer and closer to actuality.

Nov. 11, 2009 | Molly Peterson | KPCC

A state panel has recommended a network of havens for marine life in California waters. Marine protected areas from San Diego up to Santa Barbara will join a statewide network, the largest of its kind in the country. The compromise plan doesn’t feel like a success to everyone yet.

California passed a law 10 years ago now to protect not just one fish or species, but entire areas of coastal waters. Nothing about enacting that cutting edge plan has been easy.

By Mike Lee

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 2:41 p.m.

SAN DIEGO — A meeting that’s key to forming the size and location of areas off-limits to fishing has been tense Tuesday, capped off by brief shouting and shoving as anglers, environmentalists, marine scientists and others vie to make their case.

By day’s end, a statewide Blue Ribbon Task Force is expected to choose from among four plans for revamping marine protected areas, where fishing and other seafood harvesting are banned or restricted. Its proposal will be finalized by the state Fish and Game Commission, likely by late next year.

WASHINGTON — Off the coast of Washington state, mysterious algae mixed with sea foam have killed more than 8,000 seabirds, puzzling scientists. A thousand miles off California, researchers have discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling vortex roughly twice the size of Texas filled with tiny bits of plastic and other debris.

Every summer a dead zone of oxygen-depleted water the size of Massachusetts forms in the Gulf of Mexico; others have been found off Oregon and in the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Erie, and the Baltic and Black seas. Some studies indicate that North Pole seawater could turn caustic in 10 years, and that the Southern Ocean already may be saturated with carbon dioxide.