A polar bear along the Arctic Ocean coastline in Alaska illustrates the kind of environmental issues that will have to be considered under the new ocean policy in regard to developments such as offshore oil exploration.
(NEWSCOM/file)Photos (1 of 1)
Obama’s ocean task force releases report
Sweeping changes could affect the United States' management of oceans, including offshore energy development.
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor/ September 17, 2009 edition
With demands on US ocean resources control growing quickly, the Obama administration today outlined a new comprehensive ocean management plan [PDF] to guide federal agencies in restoring and protecting a badly stressed US coastal and ocean environment.
Today’s policy shift proposed by the president’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force holds enormous potential for sweeping changes in how the nation’s oceans are managed, including energy development, experts say.
At its core, the plan would set up a new National Ocean Council to guide a holistic “ecosystem-based” approach intended to elevate and unify what has long been a piecemeal approach by US agencies toward ocean policy and development — from oil and gas exploration to fisheries management to ship transportation to recreation.
The proposal would include “a more balanced, productive, and sustainable approach to using managing and conserving ocean resources,” Nancy Sutley, chairman of the president’s Council on Environmental Quality told reporters in a teleconference unveiling the plan. It would also set up “a comprehensive national approach to uphold our stewardship responsibilities and ensure accountability for our actions.”
Dr. Sutley, who also chaired the interagency task force, appeared alongside representatives from the Department of Interior, the Coast Guard, the Department of Transportation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But the proposal would apply to 24 agencies.
“This will be the first time we have ever had this kind of action for healthy oceans from any president in US history,” Sarah Chasis, director of the ocean initiative at Natural Resources Defense Council wrote in her blog. She called it the “most progressive, comprehensive national action for our oceans that we have ever seen.”
The changes could affect new offshore wind-energy proposals as well as oil and natural gas exploration. “We haven’t fully looked at all aspects of the report,” says Laurie Jodziewicz, manager of siting policy for the American Wind Energy Association. “The one concern we have is we don’t want to stop the momentum of offshore wind projects we’re already seeing. So while we’re certainly not opposed to marine spatial planning, we would like to see projects already in the pipeline move ahead and start getting some offshore projects going in the US.”
One senior official of the American Petroleum Institute said he had not yet seen the proposal and could not comment on it.
The new push comes at a time when major decisions will be needed about whether and how to explore or develop oil and gas in now-thawing areas of the Arctic Ocean near Alaska. Policy changes could also affect deep-water regions in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the siting of wave power and renewable offshore wind turbines off the East Coast.
At the same time, desalination plants, offshore aquaculture, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals are clamoring for space along coastal areas where existing requirements by commercial shipping and commercial fishing are already in place.
All of that – set against a backdrop of existing and continuing damage to fisheries, coral, coastal wetlands, beaches, and deteriorating water quality – has America’s oceans “in crisis,” in the words of a landmark Pew Oceans Commission report issued in 2003. More than 20,000 acres of wetlands and other sensitive habitat disappear annually, while nutrient runoff creates “dead zones” and harmful algal blooms. Some 30 percent of US fish populations are overfished or fished unsustainably, the report found.
Among the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force’s national objectives were:
1. Ecosystem-based management as a foundational principle for comprehensive management of the ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes.
2. Coastal and marine spatial planning to resolve emerging conflicts to ensure that shipping lanes and wind, wave, and oil and gas energy development do not harm fisheries and water quality.
3. Improved coordination of policy development among federal state, tribal, local, and regional managers of ocean, coasts, and the Great Lakes.
4. Focus on resiliency and adaptation to climate change and ocean acidification.
5. Pay special attention to policies needed to deal with changing arctic conditions.
Experts said that the new, unified policy was timely, after decades of hit-or-miss development policies.
“We have been managing bits and pieces of the ocean for a long time, but while some good has been done on pollution and resource management, it hasn’t been sufficient.” says Andrew Rosenberg, professor of natural resources at the University of New Hampshire and an adviser to the president’s ocean task force.”This policy shift comes at a critical time for our oceans for so many reasons.”
The new proposal won’t be finalized until next year, after a 30-day comment period that begins now. Still, environmentalists were quick to hail the plan as a critical and timely step to begin healing disintegrating environmental conditions in US coastal waters and in the US exclusive economic zone that extends 200 miles beyond its territorial waters.
In June, President Obama set up the commission to develop: “a national policy that ensures the protection, maintenance, and restoration of the health of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems and resources, enhances the sustainability of ocean and coastal economies.”
It must also, he wrote, “preserve our maritime heritage, provides for adaptive management to enhance our understanding of and capacity to respond to climate change, and is coordinated with our national security and foreign policy interests.”
“It’s the first time the federal government has put out a decent paper that proposes what a national policy and attitude toward our oceans should be,” says Christopher Mann, senior officer Pew Environment Group, the environmental arm of the Pew Charitable Trust.
In one of the more telling passages buried down in its interim report, the task force called for decisions guided by “best available science” as well as a “precautionary approach” that reflects the Rio Declaration of 1992, which states: “where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environment degradation.”
Editor’s note: For more articles about the environment, see the Monitor’s main environment page, which offers information on many environment topics. Also, check out our Bright Green blog archive and our RSS feed.
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Comments
2. Jennifer & Arthur C. Smith III | 09.17.09
As independent filmmakers living on an island in the Arctic Ocean– Alaska’s next “frontier” of development AND conservation– our film, ICE BEARS OF THE BEAUFORT, documents the eastern Beaufort Sea as a de facto polar bear sanctuary in need of protection against impeding industrialization. To witness this coastal & offshore treasure for yourself, visit our film website for a screening near you. Thanks to the CSM for the polar bear picture and caption.
Jennifer & Arthur C. Smith III
PolarArt Productions
Barter Island, Arctic Ocean
3. foofighter | 09.18.09
This is really wonderful news! I live on the NW coast, USA, and LOVE our ocean, including every living species within:) It is SO worth protecting.
4. Joyce | 09.18.09
Our group, Friends of Head Harbour Lightstation, Inc., a charitable, non-profit group based on Campobello Island, has the ownership of Head Harbour Lightstation. This 1829 light has Federal Heritage status, one of 21 lights with this status out of 580 left standing in Canada. As a board member of Head Harbour LIghtstation, Inc. and a volunteer, I have spent a thousand hours at the lightstation working, and at the same time, observing the marine life around the lightstation.
We have many kinds of whales immediately around Head Harbour Light Station area, which is located at the mouth of Head Harbour Passage. Just beyond the rocks where the deep Head Harbor Passage opens to the bay is a place where the strong tidal currents carry and concentrate the fish, plankton and nutrients from Passamaquoddy, Cobscook and St. Andrews bays. Yesterday, Sept 1st, I counted 10 finback whales, three humpback whales, several minke whales and two right whales feeding here. These whales are all immediately around the mouth of the narrow Head Harbour Passage. There are also several hundred porpoise which use this location at all times of the year, and many blue fin tuna. Herring and other food fish for the whales and tuna are abundant enough to attract these marine mammals.
We stayed overnight at the lighthouse on the last day of August. Very early in the morning I went outside to look at the luminous water in the moonlight. The bay was calm and I could hear the patter of millions of small fish on the surface of the water. I could also hear the constant puff of porpoise breathing as they came and went in and out the passage to the open bay. Over this I could hear the blows of many whales, some close and some distant. The night chorus of birds and the occasional singing of seals on the ledges complete the scene. This passage and bay are filled with life. This is a marine oasis, a rare concentration of living wild creatures that live here and depend upon the food and shelter this area produces for them.
We have tourists from everywhere, including Europe, that tell us how special this place is. We know this, and we are very concerned. Watching the short videos of the humpback whales you will realize that they are slow moving. They often hover in the water, or sink and lie just under the surface. They can be motionless and invisible in the water for periods of a few minutes. These endangered whales are vulnerable. They do not flee boats and care must be exercised around them.
The two right whales we have around the lighthouse right now are scarred. One has entanglement scarring and the other has half a tail because one tail fin is sliced off, probably from a large ship propeller. Right whales do not flee boats. They are slow moving and often move just under the water, but close to the surface. This makes them extremely vulnerable to boat and ship traffic. The videos of the right whales near the light station will show just how invisibly they move in and just under the water.
The finback whales feed cooperatively in a large group of from six to 10 whales. They often are circling and diving just at the mouth of Head Harbor Passage right in the tanker lane. The finback videos show how they fill the passage with their feeding maneuvers.
All these whales consider this place a kind of refuge where food is still available when it is not available elsewhere. The finbacks and minkes live here in the summer months within the circle of islands and communities in the area. There is a reason they do not move elsewhere.
This is a special oasis of life which can compare to marine parks anywhere on the globe, in spite of its small size. The configuration of the bays connecting to the passages, and the huge tidal range, make the food concentrate in the passages: the nutrient rich corridors, where most of the life can be found. This rare abundance of marine life needs to be nurtured, protected, respected and celebrated for the gift it is. The value of this abundance to the surrounding communities is beyond price. It is the foundation of all our worth as communities, and everything we value as communities.
There is a contrary value system at work in our location. This involves power, profit and two LNG terminals on the Maine side of the bays. There are risks with the transportation of LNG; however, the industrialization of these small, enclosed bays brings certain destruction to the marine life we value. Industrialization is incompatible with biological life in general. Its by-products are certain to eventually degrade the bays with pollution, chemicals, disturbance, light, noise and harassment.
The configuration of the bays and passages which carries all the nutrients to concentrate in the rich living passages, especially Head Harbour Passage, will also bring all the by-products of industry to the passages, concentrating adverse effects in the most vital areas. It will only take a collapse of plankton, the prey base, to eliminate marine life here.
I am aware that the FERC process is designed to look only at details and not the whole picture. However, the FERC needs to be made aware of the whole picture. A decision for LNG terminals in Passamaquoddy Bay, or in the mouth of the St. Croix River, will shift the balance of growth toward massive heavy industry. This will be a watershed decision for our area, because LNG, an energy source, quickly draws other heavy industry to the same location. This kind of a decision would set in stone the future direction of growth. These small, quiet residential communities would quickly be overwhelmed with industrial growth. This kind of decision cannot be undone.
A decision in favor of LNG terminals here in this marine oasis is morally and ethically the wrong decision. It is incompatible with our vision for our communities, destructive to our way of life, destructive to our rich marine and environmental heritage, and destructive to the quality of our future growth and potential.
Perhaps there is hope for situations like this with better ocean management.
5. Archie1954 | 09.18.09
The oceans believe it or not belong to humanity and the denizens that live in it. They do not belong to the US. Anything to be considered relating to the use of the oceans should be handled by the UN or some multinational group that represents all of humanity.
6. muddog | 09.18.09
PEW IS A GREEN GROUP, AS IN CASH. THEY ARE CREATED BY OIL MONEY.
THIS IS A GIANT FACADE. SAVING THE OCEANS, ETC IS A WORTHY CAUSE, UNFORTUNATELY, THESE PEOPLE ARE DRIVEN BY MONEY AT ANY EXPENSE.
PICTURE OIL, GAS PLATFORMS. THEY ARE FOOLING THE PUBLIC INTO THINKING
THE FISH ARE GONE. THIS IS NOT TRUE!!
7. MyOpinion | 09.19.09
Your thought:
“The oceans believe it or not belong to humanity and the denizens that live in it. They do not belong to the US. Anything to be considered relating to the use of the oceans should be handled by the UN or some multinational group that represents all of humanity.”
can be extended to the atmosphere, space, land, etc. Are you suggesting we turn over all authority over these resources to the UN and abolish any US authority over these?
8. RDnSC | 09.20.09
Great news! As someone that is on the ocean almost everyday, and fortunate enough to be living on a Marine Sanctuary for over 50 years, I’ve witnessed the loss of fisheries, pollution and coastal degradation. I’m so happy to see this step forward and out of the dark ages thinking that the oceans (like fossile fuels) are an unlimited resource.
9. Legal_Issues | 10.07.09
Each country that is next to any ocean, hold their claim of 200 miles zone into the Ocean. No country can claim that right, nor influence the use of that right.
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1. Momlee | 09.17.09
Keep your hands off our ocean. Is this just an opportunity to get the ocean czar on board. Or just an Obama distraction. You guys in washington have serious business to take care of, the oceans have been there before you and certainly will out last this administration. Too busy looking for threats and much too busy not to want to drill for oil. You guys have no idea how rich our country can be.