September 2012 – A new short film, America’s Ocean Economy: Challenges and Opportunities, is the first in a series that explores aspects of ocean management with ocean management practitioners from around the world. The film provides an overview of economic issues related to ocean planning. Three additional films are scheduled to be released throughout the fall and will focus on ocean planning and offshore renewable energy, fisheries, and the environment.
http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/oceansamp/multimedia.html
September 2012 –The Pacific Regional Ocean Partnership is a voluntary partnership among the governors of the U.S. Pacific Islands region. The governors of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Guam, and Hawaii signed a partnership agreement that will promote regional collaboration by identifying coastal and ocean management priorities that need to be addressed in a coordinated manner. The signed partnership agreement can be found at http://hawaii.gov/gov/newsroom/press-releases/PROP_signed_082212.pdf
On June 12, 2009, President Obama signed a memorandum establishing the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, led by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. On July 19, 2010, the task force released a set of final recommendations that set a new direction for improved stewardship of the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes. The recommendations provide (1) our nation’s first ever national ocean policy; (2) a strengthened governance structure to provide sustained high-level and coordinated attention to ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes issues; (3) a targeted implementation strategy that identifies and prioritizes nine categories for action that the United States should pursue; and (4) a framework for effective coastal and marine spatial planning. These documents are available on the task force’s website. Learn more...
The purpose of this website is to provide users with marine planning information, including national-level policies and NOAA’s prominent role in this activity. Of equal importance is the goal to help managers and policy makers—and all others who use and appreciate the ocean— understand the concept of marine planning and advance its implementation regionally in real-world settings.
Coastal and marine spatial planning (or marine planning) offers a new, comprehensive, and integrated approach to managing uses and activities at the regional level. Marine planning places sound science and the best available information at the heart of decision-making and brings federal, state, tribal, and other partners together to cooperatively develop coastal and marine spatial plans. This process is designed to decrease user conflict, improve planning and regulatory efficiencies, decrease associated costs and delays, engage affected communities and stakeholders, and preserve critical ecosystem functions and services.
Put simply, marine planning is a tool developed from the bottom up to improve collaboration and coordination among all coastal and ocean interests, and to better inform and guide decision-making that affects their economic, environmental, security, and social and cultural interests.