The Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean (MACO) today held an online 2020 Mid-Atlantic Ocean Forum to address future regional ocean policy issues and activities and review MACO collaboration efforts in addressing regional issues and discuss further collaboration needs and opportunities.
Following welcome remarks from Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) Management Board Chair Kisha Santiago-Martinez (NY Deputy Secretary of State) and MACO Chair Kevin Hassell (NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection), New York State Energy and Research Development Authority President and CEO Alicia Barton discussed New York’s approach to offshore wind, including state offshore renewable energy targets, economic benefits from offshore wind development, the state’s interest in protecting the environment and ocean, and the importance of regional coordination and collaboration.
During a session on policy, climate, and technology perspectives on future ocean management, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Principal Assistant Director for Oceans and Environment Deerin Babb-Brott provided an Ocean Policy Committee update. He specifically highlighted efforts to advance mapping, exploring, and characterizing the Exclusive Economic Zone and Alaska, achieve efficiencies in authorizations for research, mapping, and exploration, and enhance regional and national data and decision-making capacity, with public release expected in June 2020 to coincide with National Ocean Month and implementation to follow.
As to permitting efficiencies, Babb-Brott said that recommendations will reflect opportunities to focus on acquiring good information, work with stakeholders to serve interests across the board, and make the information publicly accessible for good decision-making regardless of individual perspectives brought to the discussion.
NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory’s Charles Stock addressed “Changing Climate, Changing Ocean,” including the role of the ocean in mitigating the effects of climate change and the global and local effects of the ocean’s mitigating role including warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and stratification, advances in ocean predictions and projections and opportunities to mitigate the risks of climate variability and change on coastal communities and coastal ecosystems.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory Offshore Wind Lead Walt Musial discussed the future of offshore wind technology, focusing on drivers for offshore wind energy, the roles of fixed-bottom and floating systems in offshore wind deployment, how oil and gas experience has helped accelerate floating wind turbine prototypes, and the development of larger turbines.
During a session on future directions for Mid-Atlantic ocean engagement, participants discussed current MACO and work group efforts and opportunities to build on them. Work group leads discussed their efforts on offshore renewable energy, maritime commerce and navigation safety, ocean acidification, non-consumptive recreation, and marine debris.
The session also included discussion of other collaboration needs and opportunities, with participants mentioning areas including stormwater runoff from flooding, facilitating connections between the ocean observing and prediction community with species survey/science communities, building on prior regional efforts to identify critical ocean wildlife habitats, and simple, clear public outreach on climate-driven ocean changes.
MACO, created through the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO), was established to foster collaboration among states, federal agencies, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, and federally recognized tribes, and to engage stakeholders. MARCO is a regional ocean partnership established in 2009 by the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
