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. 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 Ocean Partnership, further details are available at: www.massoceanpartnership.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

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.

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