• May 9: “Why fishermen should care about the National Ocean Policy” – Maine lobsterman Richard Nelson writes about the need for fishermen and coastal communities to get involved with regional ocean planning efforts. (Reprinted from the Bangor Daily News.)
• May 11: “Fish Talk in the News – Friday, May 11” – This week’s interesting fish stories: how much fish is safe to eat without danger from contaminants; a new seafood purchasing opportunity in NH lets consumers buy fish directly off the boat; interviews with one of New England’s last remaining weir fishermen; and a video from a fishing village in Thailand.

Some of us lament a world where fake reality TV plots, uber-famous starlets way below my age demographic and head-exploding talk show hosts rule the airwaves, as it can be a bit difficult to get the media spotlight focused past the eye candy and on “the real issues.” You know – the substantive, grown up policy stuff like genuine efforts to bring scientists, industry, citizen groups and government together to solve ocean acidification, species loss, declining fisheries, coastal erosion, and red tides.

Well, say no more, ladies and gentlemen, because the National Ocean Council has brought us the sleekest, the sexiest, the most seductive and alluring draft ocean policy implementation plan of this – or any other – presidential administration.

Am I joking? Maybe a little. But, let me know if you really want to sit down for a 45 minute Powerpoint presentation and discussion that analyzes, for example, the structure of a regional planning body in a comprehensive regional ocean planning process. Because it turns out that real issue is actually a very important component of starting to develop agreement between large companies, day boat fishermen, coastal developers and beach-loving families on how to keep oceans clean, healthy and open for business. Not really TMZ-type material.

The National Ocean Policy is really laid out in a 96 page document called the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and on page 32 it details the nine priority objectives that will implement the National Policy. Today the National Ocean Council released a draft implementation plan for those nine priority objectives. This is a big step forward for implementing the National Ocean Policy and will eventually lead to some serious action on issues such as the need to develop ecosystem-based management approaches to cleaning up the polluted runoff that increasing fouls Cape Cod beaches each summer.

The Final Recommendations took a hard working group of 25 agency leaders (see page B-I) and their staff over a year to hold hundreds of meetings, review thousands of comments and interview dozens of business, economic, national defense, scientific and community experts in a process to develop our Nation’s first ever attempt to get all of its various departments and agencies pointed in the same direction and working together to improve ocean health and management. Creating the National Ocean Council and developing the draft implementation plan has taken another year. That’s because improving ocean health and keeping oceans healthy is hard work. Not having healthy oceans and coasts is costly to our economy, causes job loss and destroys livelihoods and communities. So, spend a few moments to check out the draft implementation plan. Help support the National Ocean Policy. Ask your friends, co-workers and elected officials to support the National Ocean Policy.

Power down the big screen and dive into a real issue.

Today President Obama is expected to sign the nation’s first-ever National Ocean Policy. This process started a year ago with the Ocean Policy Task Force and is greatly based on the excellent work of two separate blue ribbon panels, hundreds of meetings between the OPTF and ocean users and stakeholders, and two lengthy comment periods. The NOP is a great step forward for our oceans, coasts and the communities that love and depend upon them. CLF and hundreds of other groups around the country have been working for such a comprehensive approach to better ocean protection and management for years. This is a good day to optimistic about the future.

In one of histories great ironies, the NOP was close to being finalized and signed when the Deepwater Horizon blew up, sank and started one of the nation’s greatest environmental disasters. What could we have done with the foresight of such a disaster?  Mundane phrases like “interagency coordination,” “use conflict,” and “emergency preparedness” take on a whole new meaning than before the BP oil disaster. We have a great opportunity to start to get it right. Congrats and Thanks, Mr. President.

To mark the occasion, CLF issued the following statement:

“Today is a momentous day for America’s oceans,” said Priscilla Brooks, vice president and director of Conservation Law Foundation’s Ocean Conservation program. “For the first time in this country’s history, we will have a national policy that aligns the great promise of our oceans with the great responsibility for managing them in a coordinated, thoughtful and sustainable fashion. New England has led the charge to balance the ever-increasing interest in our state waters – for commercial and recreational fishing, renewable energy development, tourism, oil and gas drilling and sand and gravel mining, to name a few – with the need to protect wildlife and critical habitat areas so that our region’s oceans will continue to be productive for generations to come. From Massachusetts to Rhode Island to Maine, we are developing ocean management plans that will serve as guides for better protection and management in federal waters across the nation. As the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico reminds us all too plainly, we need to reap our oceans’ tremendously valuable resources with great care. We applaud the Obama administration for its courage in prioritizing this much-needed mandate for protection and restoration of our coasts, oceans, islands and Great Lakes.”

Learn more:
Read the Ocean Policy Task Force’s recommendations>>

Read more about CLF’s work in ocean conservation>>