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NOAA Administrator Lubchenco announces grand ocean challenge to the nation

July 25, 2009 -- NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco chose a symbolic day to pose a grand challenge to the nation’s top ocean and coastal management experts.  On the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Lubchenco stressed the need to tackle climate change and engage in restoration to bring oceans and coasts back to a “healthy, productive, and resilient state.”  In an interview with the Standard-Times, Lubchenco said that she thought that a comparison with President Kennedy’s grand space challenge was appropriate given the high urgency and enormous scale of the issues facing our oceans.  Hopefully this dramatic framing of ocean issues will result in a renewed sense of motivation.
 
     Lubchenco highlighted several key challenges that the nation will face as we attempt to reverse ocean declines and restore productivity.  Perhaps most broadly relevant will be the effects of global warming: species may be forced to evacuate their historical ranges as they migrate pole-ward to escape high temperatures, and ocean acidification—the process by which carbon reacts with water and lowers its pH—threatens the ability of many shellfish, crustaceans, and corals to produce strong shells. 
 
     Another challenge will be for ocean managers to overcome conflicts between traditional and new user groups.  Commercial and recreational fishing, shipping, offshore drilling, boating, offshore wind turbines, fish farms, desalinization plants, and more all use coastal waters, and with more and more user groups there is tremendous potential for conflict.  Lubchenco envisions a comprehensive national oceans map that would, in a sense, zone out which activities may occur where.  This is called “marine spatial planning,” and President Obama has already created an Ocean Policy Task Force to begin the process.
 
     For more about the vision Lubchenco shared with ocean and coastal experts, read the 21 July story from the Standard-Times: www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090721/NEWS/907210323/-1/NEWSMAP. Another 21 July article about the Ocean Policy Task force is available from the Associated Press at www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h8Zep0ZnLxjZuh9AyghxG7IzfELgD99IGO3G0.