Ocean Zoning is on the Horizon for the Government Agencies
OCEAN GOVERNANCE
New London Day
Jeanne Amy
Boston University Washington News Service
11/04/09
WASHINGTON—Federal officials told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that they are developing a framework for cooperative use of the oceans that would bring the United States one step closer to a new national policy to address American stewardship of the oceans.
The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, which President Obama established in June, submitted an interim report in September that called for a new interagency National Ocean Council and supplied the government with a list of priorities in using the oceans, the nation’s coastline and the Great Lakes.
One priority is to set rules for coastal and marine spatial planning, which many officials refer to as ocean zoning.
The task force is now focusing its efforts on creating a framework for zoning that would coordinate decision making by the various users of the oceans, including energy producers, the shipping business, recreational and commercial fishers and aquaculture interests, said Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, during a hearing by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard.
Subcommittee members questioned a panel of agency officials on what the policy will be and which agency will implement it.
Officials said that leadership across agencies, accountability, visibility and access were all important to implementing their proposal.
“I don’t believe that any single agency can fully execute all of the qualities that I just articulated as being required,” said Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But her agency, she added, “has the scientific expertise and the ocean and coastal management experience to be an important leader in the process.”
Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard, testified that streamlining government agencies would be helpful in moving ahead with ocean zoning.
“The Coast Guard is always going to be a supporting player, not a lead on this, but we are looking for the ability to go to a single point in government to merge the policy issues and frankly ultimately make very, very difficult resource decisions on how we’re going to proceed with implementation,” Allen said.
The task force will release another report addressing ocean zoning in the next few months and allow 30 days for public comment.
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