The Congress Blog

By Ocean Conservancy Executive Vice President Dennis Kelso

Today Congress takes up a critical issue for our health and the health of our economy—how to manage our use of the ocean wisely. The ocean may seem like an endless space that can absorb whatever we put in it, and offer infinite supply of whatever we want from it, but as science has proven time and again, this simply is not true. Now, momentum is building for a national plan to manage our ocean—the Obama Administration’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force is set to provide recommendations next month, and Congress should support this critical effort, because the ocean affects all of us each day.

The ocean covers 71% of our planet’s surface, providing much of the air we breathe, food we eat and moderating the climate we need to survive. A healthy ocean is critical to our economy—more than $1 trillion, or one-tenth of the nation’s annual gross domestic product, is generated from the coasts. The ocean also absorbs massive amounts of carbon dioxide that we pump into the atmosphere.

Our excess carbon dioxide is making the ocean sick—it is making ocean water acidic and is harming critical ocean life that provides us with food and air, and a prosperous economy. In the face of stress from climate change, our demand for industrial development in the ocean continues to grow. Like urban sprawl on land, the demand for space in our oceans and on our coasts is intense. New renewable energy and fish farming facilities, commercial fishing, recreation, offshore drilling, and shipping are all competing for space.

Congress has an opportunity to push forward a framework for maximizing the ecological, economic and social benefits provided by the ocean, while protecting ecosystem health through comprehensive planning that balances ocean conservation with competing interests. Our nation can achieve that goal by implementing an ocean policy with ecosystem-based management and marine spatial planning as key elements.

It’s time to bring order to the ocean for the health of ocean ecosystems as development pressure grows. Marine spatial planning puts a process in place to manage entire ecosystems and to evaluate cumulative impacts of the many uses of the ocean. Marine spatial planning provides comprehensive, proactive planning, and long-term environmental conservation. This tool is already being used effectively by other countries and is being implemented in states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

An unprecedented opportunity exists for Congress right now. The Obama Administration’s focus on our clean energy future is turning attention to the ocean as a solution to our energy challenges. President Obama also made clear that marine spatial planning is one approach to managing our clean energy future in the ocean when he created the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force this summer. Now is the time to pursue smarter strategies for managing the use of the ocean from a national perspective, with conservation as a core component. It is also time to reinvest in the ocean as we demand more from it.

The ocean is a resource that can continue to produce what we need, but only if we preserve it. It’s time to make real policy changes to protect the ocean, and ultimately, our wellbeing and our economy. President Obama has already taken important steps, and we look to Congress to be a part of this historic opportunity to protect the ocean for generations to come.

Dennis Kelso is Executive Vice President of Ocean Conservancy, the nation’s oldest and largest ocean conservation organization, online at oceanconservancy.org.