The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force released an interim report on Thursday, Sept 17, calling for a comprehensive national approach to managing oceans, what goes into them and pretty much anything that they contain or affect.
It is both an honorable goal and an enormous challenge. Achieving it would mean seamless management of everything from freshwater resources, stormwater runoff and coastal ecosystems to fisheries, aquaculture, commercial shipping, offshore energy, military activities and global warming (not to mention coordination with state and local governments).
Perhaps the biggest initiative would be the creation of a National Ocean Council to coordinate federal policy, although it’s not entirely clear what kind of authority that council might have. Administration officials largely offered up broad statements without going into details about how the new policy, once finalized, might actually impact these activities.