Oceans and Great Lakes

Split Rock Lighthouse by Andrea Burns ~Enlarge

What do they have in common?  Well, they're all large bodies of water, and they're covered in a single executive order signed by President Obama Monday.  The text of the order is here.

The import of the order for the Lakes is unclear. Its central feature is coastal and marine spatial planning, a kind of aquatic zoning that earlier caused unfounded concern about the "outlawing" of sport fishing on the Great Lakes.

It may make sense to create a policy spanning the Lakes and the oceans, but I'm not sure the the developers of this policy met the burden of proof to do so. On the other hand, the Lakes have their growing share of competing uses -- potential wind farms on top of fishing, energy pipelines, navigation and others.

The guts of the order is a statement of national policy (Section 2).  Read it for yourself and chime in.

UPDATE 7/22:  Below is the complete text of a Nature Conservancy news release:

 
The Nature Conservancy Applauds
Executive Order Protecting the Oceans, Great Lakes

LANSING, Mich. – The Nature Conservancy congratulates President Obama today for his bold executive order that sets forth a new and more effective way of managing our oceans and the Great Lakes for people and nature.

The order creates a national policy for ocean stewardship and directs the federal government to make regional plans for ocean and coastal resources and the Great Lakes.

“What’s happening in the Gulf of Mexico with the oil spill has drawn attention and awareness to the importance of all of our coastal resources, including the Great Lakes,” said Helen Taylor, The Nature Conservancy’s state director for Michigan. “The intersection where land and water meets is a unique and fragile system that needs thoughtful, informed management to keep it clean and functioning for people and nature. This action taken by the president helps get us closer to the goal of ensuring the Great Lakes are among the best managed ecosystems on Earth.”

On any given day in the ocean and the Great Lakes, commuter ferries, sailboats, Coast Guard vessels, cruise boats, fishing boats and freighters all vie for space. The scene gets even more crowded with the addition of offshore energy and a host of other activities. These uses affect each other as well as the marine and freshwater environment.

The executive order’s bold new approach for managing these uses is called coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP). Much like land-use planning, CMSP uses science to paint a picture of how the ocean and the Great Lakes can support multiple human activities, marine and freshwater life and natural resources. This blueprint provides the information needed to help accommodate different uses and minimize conflicts, while ensuring the health of ocean and freshwater ecosystems.

The Nature Conservancy is on the front lines supporting these efforts, working with fishermen, government officials, industry and scientists to share our experience, policy expertise and our data to help advance coordinated planning.

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Footnote:  Shortly after being sworn in as a new U.S. Senator in 2007, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said in a speech, "Somehow I got placed on the oceans subcommittee. I didn't ask for that. But it does have jurisdiction over the Great Lakes, which is important, and so I can be a voice for the Great Lakes. But when I got there the first day I realized all the other senators had an ocean. Olympia Snowe was on there, John Kerry was on there. And I wrote a note to Frank Lautenberg and I said, 'I am the only senator on the oceans subcommittee without an ocean.' And he wrote back, 'Just come back next year and ask for one."'"