Executive order implements Ocean Policy Task Force recommendations

Obama Administration officials today released the Final Recommendations of the Ocean Policy Task Force.

You can see the full text HERE

President Obama promptly issued an "Executive Order--Stewardship of the Ocean, Our Coasts, and the Great Lakes" that implements those recommendations and establishes the National Ocean Council (NOC) that they call for.

You can access the text of the executive order HERE

The executive order says that it "establishes a national policy to ensure the protection, maintenance, and restoration of the health of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems and resources, enhance the sustainability of ocean and coastal economies, preserve our maritime heritage, support sustainable uses and access, provide for adaptive management to enhance our understanding of and capacity to respond to climate change and ocean acidification, and coordinate with our national security and foreign policy interests."

The Final Recommendations prioritize actions for the National Ocean to pursue, and call for a flexible framework for coastal and marine spatial planning to address conservation, economic activity, user conflict, and sustainable use of the ocean, our coasts and the Great Lakes.

The Executive Order says that "in practical terms, coastal and marine spatial planning provides a public policy process for society to better determine how the ocean, our coasts, and Great Lakes are sustainably used and protected -- now and for future generations.

The NOC will coordinate across the Federal Government to implement the National Policy. Its Co-chairs will be the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Plans are for it to have its first meeting later this summer.