President establishes new National Ocean Policy
On July 19 President Obama accepted the long-awaited recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and immediately issued an Executive Order establishing a new National Ocean Policy. This is an important milestone that has been applauded by a broad cross section of the oceanographic scientific community as well as most marine conservation organizations.
You can read a good report by Laura Cantral (Joint Ocean Commission Initiative) and Andrew Light (Center for American Progress) about this significant ocean policy event at https://www.americanprogress.org/tag/oceans/view/.
If you want to look at the actual Presidential Order, go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-stewardship-ocean-our-coasts-and-great-lakes
There are many encouraging and positive aspects of this new policy — long overdue. In due course, I will write about select issues in the weeks ahead as it becomes clearer how this will translate into practical benefits for an enlightened ocean policy.
This marks a good day for the Oceans.