[CINC] Ocean task force

[staci at savzsea.com]

Fellow CINCs,

I would like to share this good news.......

Sweeping changes could affect the United States' management of oceans,
including offshore energy development.

President Obama's Ocean task force (yes, there really is such a thing)
last week released a comprehensive ocean management plan to guide
federal agencies in restoring and protecting a badly stressed US coastal
and ocean environment. 

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.

If you'd like to read all about it, just click here:
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/09/17/obamas-ocean-task-force-releases-report/.

Staci Kaye-Carr
Channel Islands Naturalist Corps