5th Annual Heceta Head Coastal Conference
SUMMARY of CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Panel II ~ "Oregon's Ocean and Territorial Sea Plan"
Incorporating Fishermen’s Knowledge
Charles Steinback, Director of Marine Planning, Ecotrust
The State of Oregon is developing a comprehensive plan to guide the potential siting of renewable ocean energy projects in Oregon’s Territorial Sea. Oregon’s Territorial Sea Plan (TSP), clearly outlines under Goal 19 that, the state of Oregon must protect and encourage the beneficial uses of ocean resources, such as navigation, food production, recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, and uses of the seafloor, proved that such activities do not adversely affect the resources protection.
That said, in order to protect and encourage these activities (food production and recreation), the state needs to understand and identify where these activities occur. To this end, Ecotrust has begun collecting information on the spatial extent of human uses that provide economic and sociocultural benefits. This kind of spatially explicit information on commercial and recreational fisheries and their value to fishermen has the potential to ensure representation of socioeconomic values on the TSP process.
In the near term, the resulting data set forms the basis for informing siting decisions for energy projects that minimize impacts to the marine ecosystem and human uses. Longer term, these data are also useful for other marine spatial planning processes, notably the designation of marine protected areas off Oregon, and form a baseline for subsequent monitoring and evaluation research of management measures.
The goal of this project is to compile the first-ever comprehensive map (or series of maps) that illustrates the commercial and consumptive recreational fishing use patterns and values along the entire Oregon coast from Astoria to Brookings, capturing the expert knowledge of fishermen.
The objectives are to:
- Comprehensively describe Oregon’s commercial and consumptive recreational fishing community and incorporate fishermen’s knowledge into the development of future amendments to the Oregon Territorial Sea Plan;
- Develop accurate maps depicting the extent of the local fishing grounds and their stated and economic importance to the local fleets (just stated importance for the consumptive recreational fleet);
- Analyze areas of high or valuable use in relation to existing or prospective alternative ocean uses;
- Collect baseline data for future analyses of economic contribution of the commercial and consumptive recreational sector to the coastal economy; and
- Integrate data into Oregon’s Coastal Atlas.
Ocean Planning in Oregon
Onno Husing, Director, Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association
In late 2007 and early 2008, the State of Oregon initiated a process to amend Oregon’s Territorial Sea Plan (TSP). The amendments to the TSP represent a sea change. The TSP will go from being a set of written policies to a spatially explicit zoning plan, complete with maps designating uses.
This new approach, called Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), is in response to the many new proposed uses of the ocean; especially renewable energy development. To place these developments into their historical context, Husing outlined the major events impacting Oregon’s Ocean in the last 30 years. He also noted at this stage in the process that we are in the information gathering stage. By the second half of 2010, the actual planning efforts, based on this information, will begin in earnest. He explained Oregon’s ocean planning effort will be coordinated with the federal leasing process beyond Oregon’s Territorial Sea.
Territorial Sea Plan and Renewable Energy
Paul Klarin, Coordinator of Marine Affairs, Oregon Department of Land and Conservation Development
This presentation described the process and methodology that is being applied to the amendment of the Oregon Territorial Sea Plan to address ocean-based renewable energy development. On March 26, 2008, the Governor issued Executive Order No. 08-07 directing the Department of Land Conservation and Development to amend the Territorial Sea Plan to protect coastal communities in the siting of wave energy projects, based on the recommendations of the Ocean Policy Advisory Council.
The order was prompted by the concerns of coastal communities and commercial and recreational fishers, that the development of wave energy facilities in Oregon’s Territorial Sea (0 to 3 nautical miles from the ocean shore), would significantly restrict the areas available to fishing and harm the economies of coastal communities.
The draft Part Five of the Territorial Sea Plan—The Use of the Territorial Sea for the Development of Renewable Energy Facilities or Other Related Structures, Equipment or Facilities--will establish policies, implementation standards, and project plan requirements for renewable energy facilities to be sited within the state territorial sea. The policy and implementation requirements are based on those contained in Goal 19 Ocean Resources and the existing policies and implementation requirements contained in Parts One and Two of the Territorial Sea Plan.