Ocean Policy Priorities In The United States And H R 21 Oceans Conservation Education And National Strategy For The 21st Century Act Oversight And Legislative Hearings

Accompanying DVD contains 2 segments: the first shows the developmental process into making the report, the second shows a summary of the findings and recommendations of the report.

Written in response to the increasing interest in the making of ocean policy, this collection of original articles surveys the history of U.S. ocean policy, ocean policy advocacy, and the struggle within government to determine how best to develop and implement a sensible ocean policy. The increasing complexity of the issues, programs, and policies related to marine and coastal zone matters and the increasing number of government agencies and interest groups formed to deal with these matters reflect the growing awareness of their importance. But, reflect the editors, in an enormously complex world, where many interests are in conflict and where information is tentative and incomplete—yet often overwhelmingly abundant—there are few easy solutions to ocean policy problems.

In June 2009, the Obama Admin. established an Ocean Policy Task Force to develop a national ocean policy. On Sept. 10, 2009, the task force released an Interim Report which includes national ocean policy priorities, a governance structure for interagency coordination, and an implementation strategy. Most congressional activity has focused on specific topics, incl. ocean exploration, ocean and coastal mapping, ocean and coastal integrated observation, ocean acidification research and monitoring, and coastal and estuarine land conservation. Contents of this report: (1) Background: U.S. Comm. on Ocean Policy; Pew Oceans Comm.; Admin. Response; Joint Ocean Comm. Initiative; (2) Issues for Congress. Charts and tables.