Why We Need a National Ocean Policy

On June 12th, President Obama issued a memorandum that established the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, and charged it with developing a recommendation for a national policy to protect, maintain and restore our oceans, coasts and the Great Lakes.  The Task Force is now traveling the country holding Public Meetings to get feedback on why such a policy should be created and what it should look like.  Sometime today (9/10), the Task Force is expected to release it’s first comments.

The ocean is currently saddled by a completely unworkable governance structure that includes over 140 laws and 20 different Federal agencies, each with different goals and conflicting mandates. As a result, there is no guidance on how to resolve conflicts that occur between these interests, and many problems fall through the cracks. In addition, with so many organizations owning a piece of the jurisdiction, there is little consistency across decisions, and no one is accountable for overall ocean health. Thus, to address the major crosscutting problems facing the ocean, a clear, accountable governance structure, aligned around the guiding principle of protecting, maintaining and restoring ocean health must be established.

To succeed, the Policy needs to be grounded in Ecosystem Based Management. Today, decisions about ocean resources are typically made on a species by species, problem-by-problem manner, whereas Ecosystem Based Management considers the interplay between species and their habitats, including the impact of human activities. The policy should also address the governance problem by providing a mechanism to ensure consistent implementation across all the Federal agencies that are involved in ocean management. Part of this is structural, and solving that will be complex. Part of it, however, is simply directing the Federal Agencies to interpret and enforce their regulations in accordance with the Policy value statement (Protect, Maintain, Restore), to revise any policies that are not aligned with it, and to issue new regulations where gaps exist. The bottom line is that these Agencies should be directed to minimize harm to ocean, coastal and great lakes resources through their activities, and to take action to prevent harm. The policy should also recommend actions to address specific problems facing our oceans today such as restoring fisheries, restoring habitats, and improving water quality.

All of this is much more easily said than done, and when managing for the long term, sacrifices must be made. However, if we don’t solve the governance problem and start making sacrifices, we’ll soon have squandered all the gifts the ocean has bestowed upon us. I hope the Task Force seizes the opportunity and act with courage and conviction to protect our oceans.  To help motivate them, I encourage everyone living near each of the Public Meetings to attend and to make informed comments.  The next meeting is in San Francisco on September 17th.  The time is now for the ocean community to stand and be heard.