Lecture 33- "Marine Policy" Flashcards
jurisdictional regions: individual state governments
- shoreline to 3 miles offshore
- Texas and Gulf Coast of Florida jurisdiction extend 9 miles
jurisdictional regions: federal government
3 miles offshore to 200 miles offshore
jurisdictional regions: international
waters beyond 200 miles are open to all countries
Federal Water Pollution Control Act/ Clean Water Act (1972)
- navigable waters
- publicly owned treatment works that discharge into marine waters must comply to stringent criteria
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (1979)
- the governing authority for all fishery management activities that occur in federal waters
- established the US 200 nautical mile limit
- set up a system of regional fishery management councils
Federal Coastal Zone Management Act (1972)
- “encourage” coastal states to develop and implement coastal zone management plans
- funds were authorized to states to develop their program
Federal Marine Mammal Protection Act (1979)
- established federal responsibility to conserve marine mammals
- exceptions are tribes and Native Americans for cultural reasons
coastal zone importance
- trillions of dollars per year in economic activity
- 69 million jobs
have recent US coastal policies worked?
No!
why haven’t US coastal policies worked?
- more than half of all coastal rivers and bays are moderately to severely degraded due to NUTRIENT INPUTS
- growing conflicts with a range of stakeholders that use the coastal environment
Pew Charitable Trust’s Oceans Commissions (2003) and the US Commission on Ocean Policy (2004)
- carried out the first broad assessment of ocean policy in more than 30 years
- both concluded that US ocean resources are currently at great risk
it is recommended that
a comprehensive overhaul of the agencies that currently make ocean policy
why is it difficult to create an ocean management policy that coherently regulates the wide range of stake holders that use the coastal environment?
up until now, regulation has been carried out by a large number of independent federal agencies (too many cooks in the kitchen)
example of agencies working against each other
- one agency wants to promote corn-ethanol which increases nitrogen in the Mississippi by 37%
- another agency plans to reduce nitrogen inputs by at least 40% to mitigate dead zone in Gulf of Mexico
Obama’s Administration Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force
- developed policy recommendations based largely on the conclusions of the US Ocean Commission
- signed by an Executive Order in 2010
