From: Fish Update
NAFC Marine Centre Marine Spatial Planning team has published a new report ‘Regional Locational Guidance for wave and tidal energy in the Shetland Islands’.
It provides guidance to the marine renewables industry on the siting of wave and tidal devices. The report details the methodology used to integrate environmental, social and economic considerations into the site selection process through the creation of spatial models.
From: Rhode Island Property Law
By: John M. Boehnert
I recently had the opportunity to address the Oceans’ 12 Conference meeting in Virginia, having been asked to serve on a panel to discuss the new phenomenon of “ocean zoning”, which I see as the next big step in coastal zone management.
The panel itself was focusing on “coastal and marine spatial planning”, or MSP, as it is often referred to in shorthand. MSP is a comprehensive and integrated ecosystem-based spatial planning process, relying on sound science, to gather information and data about conditions of the ocean, the seabed, and the marine life that inhabit the study area. MSP can also analyze current and anticipated uses of ocean and coastal areas, and in this country, the Great Lakes as well.
From: NRDC
As our government officials finally move beyond election season rhetoric and preoccupation, it’s time to start looking forward. For our oceans and all those who depend on them, that means continuing down the path of smart, ocean management that will protect important ecological and economic ocean resources now and into the future.
Earlier this year, we celebrated the two-year anniversary of our first-ever National Ocean Policy, the landmark policy recommended by two bipartisan commissions and set in motion by President Obama. As Juliet Eilperin wrote recently in the Washington Post, this important policy is already clearing up confusion and conflict when it comes to ocean management. By helping coordinate the 27 federal entities that govern our oceans—often with conflicting interests and mandates—the National Ocean Policy is making our government smarter, leaner, and more effective in managing our oceans.
From the Washington Post; printed in the Boston Globe
WASHINGTON — Partisan battles are engulfing the nation’s ocean policy, showing that polarization over environmental issues does not stop at the water’s edge.
For years, ocean policy was the preserve of specialists. But President Obama created the first national ocean policy, with a tiny White House staff, and that set off some fierce election-year fights.
Conservative Republicans warn that the administration is determined to expand its regulatory reach and curb the extraction of valuable energy resources, while many Democrats and their environmentalist allies argue that the policy will keep the ocean healthy and reduce conflicts over its use.