Mass Audubon Advocacy

Working Toward Ocean Management

Mass Audubon played a key role in drafting the Massachusetts Ocean Management Act, which became law in 2009. The Governor subsequently appointed Mass Audubon as the “Environmental Representative” to the 17-member Ocean Advisory Commission to help write the nation’s first state Ocean Management Plan, recently released by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

The Oceans Act and Plan were originally recommended by a state Ocean Task Force, of which Mass Audubon was one of two environmental organization representatives on the 27-member body. The Ocean Management Plan was developed as a first-in-the-nation effort to protect our important natural resources and guide ocean-related development, including renewable energy. A requirement of the Act, the plan seeks to balance economic growth with protection of marine wildlife and habitat.

Additional materials:

• As a founding co-chair of the Massachusetts Ocean Coalition, details on ocean management progress are at our web site: www.massoceanaction.org
• As partners to the Massachusetts Sea Plan, further details are available at: www.seaplan.org.
• The Commonwealth's ocean website is: www.mass.gov.czm/oceanmanagement
• To receive periodic ocean plan updates, send an email to join-env-oceanplan@listserv.state.ma.us
• The Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office has made available a coastal mapping tool known as the Massachusetts Ocean Resource Information System (MORIS) that provides detailed geographic data for ocean planning, coastal development, public safety, tourism, transportation planning and marine environmental protection.
• The US Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in cooperation with federal and state partners, have created a GIS-based marine information system for the US waters. Along with Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management’s Massachusetts Ocean Resource Information System, this detailed geographic data will assist Massachusetts and federal agencies, and the Massachusetts Ocean Advisory Commission, of which Mass Audubon is a gubernatorial appointee,  in making recommendations and decisions on ocean planning, coastal development, public safety, tourism, transportation planning, marine environmental protection, and offshore renewable energy.

National Ocean Management
The Obama Administration established an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force in June 2009, led by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The Task Force is charged with developing a recommendation for a National Ocean Policy that ensures protection, maintenance, and restoration of oceans, coasts and the Great Lakes. In December 2009 the Ocean Policy Task Force released its Interim Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning. Mass Audubon and others commented on this important national initiative (PDF 195K). And on July 19, 2010, the Administration released the Final Recommendations (PDF 1.9MB) of the Task Force, and the President issued an Executive Order establishing a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes.

The Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC) is a state and federal partnership with the goal of engaging in regional protection and balanced use of ocean and coastal resources.  NROC's coordinated approach reaches across state boundaries to find and implement solutions to the region's most pressing ocean and coastal issues.
Regional ocean data priorities can be found at www.northeastoceandata.org

Read Mass Audubon’s position on offshore oil and gas drilling (PDF 58K).

National Endowment for the Oceans
Following the 2011 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Mass Audubon joined in the effort to secure federal funding for the monitoring, protection, and restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems. The National Endowment for the Oceans Act would provide funding primarily from offshore energy activities and a portion of fines from violations of federal law on the Outer Continental Shelf. Funds would be made available in the form of grants to fund conservation and restoration programs and to develop the baseline science to encourage sustainable ocean uses that create jobs and support coastal economies. These efforts would not only improve the health of these ecosystems, but also promote their resilience so that they can better recover when disasters like oil spills occur.
Read Mass Audubon’s letter to our US Senators urging their support for this much-needed legislation.