Saving Seafood

Trump’s new ocean policy focused more on economy, less on environment

June 22, 2018 — The fate of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Action Plan, which took years to develop and was starting to be used by government, industry and researchers, is in limbo after actions taken by President Donald Trump this week.

On Tuesday, Trump scrapped a 2010 executive order by President Barack Obama that made environmental protection the focus of the nation’s ocean policy. It also created nine Regional Planning Bodies to write blueprints for protecting the health of the oceans up to the federal limit of 200 miles out, while promoting sustainable uses.

In its place, Trump issued a new executive order to make jobs and economic development the main focus of federal policy, ended the regional groups and established a federal Interagency Ocean Policy Committee.

The administration said the action was to eliminate bureaucracy and streamline federal coordination, in a fact sheet accompanying the order.

But it leaves those starting to implement the Mid-Atlantic plan uncertain about how to proceed.

Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City

Mid-Atlantic residents see ocean health as major economic issue

December 7, 2017 — Eight in 10 residents of Mid-Atlantic states believe the ocean and beaches are important to their economies, including 95 percent of those living in coastal communities. Eighty-three percent of residents living in coastal communities believe that climate change is real—13 percentage points higher than a national survey taken by Monmouth University in 2015. Support for offshore oil and gas drilling plummeted from 46 percent in 2009 to 22 percent now among residents living closest to the coast.

These are some of the findings from a pair of survey reports released today by the Monmouth University Polling Institute (MUPI) and Urban Coast Institute (UCI). The surveys present the first region-wide snapshot of public opinion on ocean issues since the 2016 elections and offer a glimpse at how views have changed since major storms like Sandy and Irene impacted the Mid-Atlantic coast.

A regionwide survey was conducted with residents from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia to gauge opinion of a wide range of coastal issues and elements of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Action Plan, which was adopted in December of 2016 by the six states, federal agencies, tribal entities and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. A second survey was conducted specifically with year-round residents of Mid-Atlantic coastal communities that asked the same questions regarding ocean issues as a 2009 MUPI-UCI poll in order to track how opinions have changed over time among those living closest to the coast.

Read the full story at PHYS