Ocean Zone News Blog

NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is seeking applications for the following vacant seats on the Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council: Business/Industry, Tourism, Community-at-Large: Tutuila East Side, and Youth. Applicants are chosen based upon their particular expertise and experience in relation to the seat for which they are applying; community and professional affiliations; philosophy regarding the protection and management of marine resources; and possibly the length of residence in the area affected by the sanctuary. Applicants who are chosen as members should expect to serve 3-year terms, pursuant to the council’s charter.

Applications are due by October 29, 2010.

On September 13, 2010, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published Federal Register notice advising that NOAA is soliciting proposals for competitive funding for Regional Ocean Partnerships.  Eligible entities include state, local, territory and tribal governments, regional ocean partnerships, institutions of higher learning, and non-profit and for-profit organizations.  Eligible Partnerships are those that include or emphasize regional Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP) efforts.  These efforts include protection of marine mammals.

This funding completion focuses on advancing effective coastal and ocean management through regional ocean governance and on advancing the goals for national ocean policy set out in the July 2010 Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. The Regional Ocean Partnership Funding Program will support two categories of activities:

by Bonner R. Cohen, Ph.D.

As if the sputtering U.S. economy weren’t in enough trouble already, the Obama administration is cooking up a new scheme that will extend the heavy hand of Washington to where it has never gone before.

From NRDC Staff Blog

Tomorrow evening at the Commonwealth Club of California, the Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Jane Lubchenco will be discussing the Obama administration’s national ocean policy.

Just as we have the Clean Water Act for our water and the Clean Air Act for our air, we now have a bedrock environmental policy like this for our oceans. On July 19, President Obama signed an executive order that created a national ocean policy to protect and restore our oceans and that created a framework for coastal and marine spatial planning.

From OSU News and Communications

A one-day symposium in Eugene will bring together policy experts and marine scientists – an important step in exploring how climate change impacts on the world’s oceans may necessitate new policies and management approaches.

The free public symposium will be held at the University of Oregon’s Knight Law Center (room 175) from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10. More information on the event, including registration, is available at www.waynemorsecenter.uoregon.edu/_pages/events_themes/oceans_conference.html. The center is located at 1515 Agate St.