Attend Your Public Meeting on Ocean Planning

Public meetings on Ocean Planning are coming to communities across New England in May and June, and we encourage you to attend and invite others! We’re making Ocean Frontiers DVDs available for free for all who wish to share the film with friends and colleagues. Ocean Frontiers is an ideal way to bring people up to speed on ocean planning and let others know of the important opportunity to attend an ocean planning meeting in New England. To receive a free DVD fill out this short form: www.tinyurl.com/ofdvdrequest.

Draft regional ocean planning goals and potential actions will be discussed at these upcoming meetings.  The Northeast Regional Planning Body, a group of state, tribal and federal representatives from New England who are working to implement the National Ocean Policy and address critical New England ocean issues, wants your input on these goals and actions. Additional information on their progress can be found here:  http://northeastoceancouncil.org/regional-planning-body/meetings/

These public meetings will be held in May & June as follows*:

  • Portland, ME            Thursday, May 23, 4-7pm
  • Narragansett, RI      Tuesday, May 28, 4-7pm
  • Ellsworth, ME          Monday, June 3, 4-7pm
  • Rockland, ME           Tuesday, June 4, 5:30-8:30pm
  • Boston, MA               Thursday, June 6, 4-7pm
  • New Haven, CT        Thursday, June 13, 4-7pm
  • New Bedford, MA    Monday, June 17, 4-7pm
  • Gloucester, MA         Tuesday, June 18, 4-7pm
  • Barnstable, MA        Wednesday, June 19, 4-7pm
  • Portsmouth, NH      Tuesday, June 25, 4-7pm

*Additional information for these meetings (specific venues, agenda, etc.) is available at: http://goo.gl/m2OmH

These meetings will occur within the period during which the Northeast Regional Planning Body seeks public input regarding draft goals; public comment will be taken at these meetings. These meetings will also be an opportunity to review draft maps and products from initial efforts to gather information on the natural resources and diverse uses of the ocean, including fishing, transportation, energy and infrastructure, aquaculture, and recreation. If you are not available to attend but would like to provide input, please do so by June 28, 2013. The draft goals will be available through the same website <http://goo.gl/m2OmHin mid-May along with additional details for providing public comment, but for now please hold the dates!

Thank you for attending and/or encouraging others to attend these important meetings!

Ocean Planning Moving Ahead

Pt. Judith Lighthouse, Rhode Island

Two years in the making, the Obama Administration released the final action plan to implement the National Ocean Policy this week. This “to do” list for the ocean marks a major step forward for healthy oceans, people and communities who depend on the health of our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes.

We are in New England, working on new Ocean Frontiers stories and what better way to dive in than to attend the 2nd Northeast Regional Planning Body (RPB) meeting. On Thursday and Friday last week, members of the RPB, which include Federal, Tribal, State, and New England Fishery Management Council representatives, met in Narragansett, Rhode Island. There is extensive information on the website, including the meeting materials. The meeting was videotaped, and the entire meeting will be online soon.

Regional Planning Body

The Regional Planning Body is using a shared leadership approach. Betsy Nicholson, NOAA, is the Federal co-lead, Chief Richard Getchell, Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians is the Tribal co-lead and Grover Fugate, Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, is the State co-lead. In addition to the 30 or so members of the RPB attending, there were 60+ people in the audience, observing the day and a half meeting. Like me, most people were impressed with the work that has been completed since the inaugural meeting in November 2012, and the level of commitment and “buy-in” of the planning body members. It was heartening to see the tribal culture and western policy and science intermingle, with people learning something quite new from one another.

Richard Nelson, lobster fisherman, provides public comment.

On the agenda: Identify draft goals for regional ocean planning and ways to receive public input about those draft goals through early summer, timeline for accomplishing initial work, engaging stakeholders as the process moves forward, as well as their operational details. The RPB members grappled with the goals on day one and that evening the co-leads re-worked them and presented the refined goals the next morning.

The draft goals are three-fold:

  • Protecting, restoring and maintaining healthy ocean and coastal ecosystems
  • Promoting compatibility among current and future ocean uses of ocean and coastal waters
  • Effective decision making

For those of you who live in New England, there will be public meetings at the end of May and early June in multiple locations where these draft goals will be presented, and you’ll have the opportunity to give your input. We will keep you posted on dates and locations as soon the information is available. If you would like to hold an Ocean Frontiers screening in your community in advance of these public meetings to help with citizen turnout, please contact us and we will help you set up an event – it’s super easy with our free DVDs and screening toolkit.

Initial outreach to key industry sectors is underway as well as mapping, but it’s not yet clear how the RPB will regularly or formally hear from stakeholders. That was one of their homework assignments. They heard from a number of people during the public comments that people are ready and available to share resources and knowledge with them – universities, scientists and NGOs in particular.

It’s a critical time to shift how we manage the ocean – thank you for all that you do!

Best regards,

 

 

 

 

Karen Meyer
Executive Director, Green Fire Productions

Who’s Embarking on a New Era in Ocean Stewardship?

Fishermen, scientists, business owners, farmers & more are charting a new course for the ocean—one of collaboration & holistic approaches, as seen in Ocean Frontiers. Now, we are able to offer you a more in depth look at what these ocean champions are doing—learn more about their work, watch new video clips and see how to get involved!  Each story now has its own webpage.

Click on the titles below to go to that specific story’s page—with more videos, articles and links! 

whales and ships

Saving Whales at Stellwagen Bank

Learn more about collaborating to save whales and ocean economies. Meet the project partners, and check out the cool work on endangered right whales.

 

An Ocean Blueprint for Florida Keys

See how ocean planning is being done right by a diverse group of ocean stakeholders. Hear from Keys fishermen about how ocean planning benefits their businesses.

 

Iowa Farmers & Gulf of Mexico

Connect with people across the Mississippi River Basin who are both changing their agricultural practices and implementing innovative conservation measures.

 

Port Orford Fishermen Protect Ocean & Way of Life

Learn from these visionary fishermen and their partners about how to create and promote a community stewardship area for a healthy near shore ecosystem that will support their town’s economy.

Kudos to Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes and Leesa Cobb of the Port Orford Ocean Resource Team for the this excellent op-ed they wrote on the National Ocean Policy and its value to Oregon’s coastal communities

Thanks for all you do!
The Ocean Frontiers Team

East Coast Tour, a Success

People filled the New England Aquarium IMAX Theatre for the
East Coast Premiere of Ocean Frontiers

April is a busy month for the Ocean Frontiers film—from three East Coast premieres back-to-back during the first week of this month to the several West Coast premieres set for next week—we are delighted to share the film with so many communities across the nation.

Ocean Frontiers features exciting, success stories from the frontiers of ocean conservation, and we are finding folks are hungry to hear them. We are often faced with environmental challenges, yet are not presented with the tools to move forward. Ocean Frontiers brings to light the need for smart, collaborative ocean planning, and clearly conveys the solutions to a plethora of ocean and coastal issues that planning can provide.

We kicked off the East Coast tour on April 3rd at the New England Aquarium—a beautiful setting overlooking Boston Harbor. This Boston Premiere was held in conjunction with the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary’s 20th Anniversary. Stellwagen Bank is a home to the endangered North Atlantic right whale, of which there are only an estimated 350-550 left in the world. This free celebration packed the IMAX Theatre with over 350 individuals who care deeply their ocean. Thanks to the New England Aquarium, Massport, Conservation Law Foundation and Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary for co-hosting!

The very next morning we attended the release of an exciting new, free iPhone/iPad Application called WhaleALERT. This application is designed to help protect the North Atlantic right whale. WhaleALERT came to life out of an early partnership of “unlikely allies” who teamed up in 2007 to reduce the rate of whale strikes by ships. This partnership resulted in the first port in the nation to move shipping lanes to protect marine mammals. This story of the moving of Boston’s shipping lanes is featured in Ocean Frontiers—view the video clip here—so, we were especially excited to be a part of the unveiling of the WhaleALERT application—another step in protecting the these magnificent creatures and the ocean we all depend upon.

That same evening, US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island—an ocean champion—kicked off the Rhode Island premiere of Ocean Frontiers at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography Bay Campus. The entire Rhode Island congressional delegation were honorary co-hosts along with 15 conservation organizations, businesses and academic institutions. Following the film, a lively panel discussion ensued between the attentive Narragansett audience and ocean experts about Rhode Island’s successes and lessons learned while creating Rhode Island’s Ocean Plan (SAMP) and how this can help with regional ocean planning in New England.

The following day, Thursday, April 5, we closed our East Coast tour with a successful premiere in New Jersey at the beautiful Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute. Students, professors, renewable ocean energy proponents, fishermen, conservationists, and the community joined together to watch the film and take part in another lively panel discussion—sharing trials, tribulations and their hopes and plans—to protect and manage the very shore and sea that New Jersey people rely on and adore so much. Thanks to Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute, Atlantic Wind Connection, Viking Village and Clean Ocean Action for co-hosting!

Would you like to see more partnerships and smart planning taking place in our ocean and coastal communities to ensure the protection of our vital ocean resources for economies today and generations tomorrow? Please consider writing a letter to your members of Congress today!

Check out photos from the Ocean Frontiers East Coast Tour.

Thanks for all you do!
The Green Fire Productions Team