Fostering Emerging West Coast Regional Marine Initiatives

1. Fostering Emerging West Coast Regional Marine Initiatives William Stelle, Jr will.stelle@klgates.com Ocean Law Seminar Seattle, Washington May 23, 2008

2. Our Challenge • Let Us Think Prospectively About Tomorrow • Our objective is to enable better decisions on how to best manage marine resources for present and future generations, focusing on the west coast region • We have money, access to public and private authorities but no special powers • Tomorrow is a new day. On what and whom should we spend our money, and why?

3. Working Assumptions • The present characteristics are a given • No new significant Federal or state dollars • Increasing challenges on the living marine resource fronts • Enormous issues of climate change (changes in temperature, circulation, food web, hydrological cycles, etc. etc.) • Marine and estuarine fishery collapses • Expanding human populations and ever weak connections of land-sea interface • Significant scientific ignorance and shrinking science and monitoring budgets

4. Working Assumptions, cont • Weakened public agencies and budgets • Jurisdictional spaghetti at multiple scales • Increasing public awareness of coastal issues and risks • Increasingly restive publics wanting “action” without too many inconveniences • New opportunities for federal energies and initiatives • Blossoming regional and local initiatives

5. Significant Regional Activities Underway • The West Coast Governors Agreement on Ocean Health • Map and Adapt to Climate change • Promote clean beaches and coastal waters • Protect healthy habitats by mapping and identifying important areas • Implement ecosystem based management • Reduce adverse impacts of offshore energy • Promote ocean literacy • Expand marine science and monitoring • Support sustainable coastal communities • Action Plan Due in Summer, 2008 • Contains an excellent and comprehensive (albeit modest) menu of activities

6. Regional Activities, cont • California Initiatives (deep) • Implementation of the Marine Life Protection Act • Establishes the Ocean Protection Council • Calls for Designation of a Network of MPAs in five coastal regions • 29 MPAs for the Central Coast in 07 • 3 MPAs for the North Central Coast Pending Approval • Expected approvals for the other 3 regions by the end of 2011 • Public/Private funding in a partnership of the Resources Agency, Cal. Fish and Game and the Resources Legacy Fund • Activities of the Ocean Protection Council • Strategic priorities of governance; research; water quality; physical processes and habitats; ecosystems; and education • $30 million in grants through for 07/08

7. Regional Initiatives, cont • Oregon • Oregon Ocean Advisory Council • Gubernatorial Solicitation of MPAs and Sanctuary Proposals in 2005 • Reconvened in 2007 with a scaled back emphasis on 10 MPAs • Recommendations Expected at end of 2008 • Oregon Coastal Caucus (Legislative) • Mapping Oregon habitats • Other

8. Regional Initiatives, cont • Washington • Puget Sound Partnership • Major Focus of the Washington Marine Agenda • Integrated Environmental Assessment for the Sound, lead by NOAA Fisheries Science Center • Development of Action Plan by 12/08 • 5 year Implementation Plan • The Outer Coast • Continued Implementation of the Straits Commission • Continued Implementation of Selected MRCs • San Juan County Marine Stewardship Area • Pending Port Susan MSA designation • Outer Coast National Marine Sanctuary Plan Amendments • Scoping in 08, final by 2010 • Washington Marine Protected Areas Workgroup • Recommendations on MPA areas to Legislature by 12/09

9. Significant Regional Initiatives, Private Sector • New Liquid Natural Gas Facilities off the Oregon Coast (two pending) • Marine Renewable Energy Developments • Tidal Power • Wave Energy • Wind Energy • Expanding marine and estuarine aquaculture • Other?

10. Major Regional Marine Challenges • Zoning of Marine Spaces: why, for what, for whom and on what basis? • Marine protected areas • Dedicated marine energy siting • Aquaculture • Improving the effectiveness of the land-sea connections as populations grow • Planning for climate changes in coastal development and redevelopment • Invasive species controls

11. Regional Challenges, Cont • Science and Technical • Projecting the ubiquitous effects of climate change and sea-level rise • Expanded monitoring capabilities • Expanded near-shore mapping coast-wide • Enhancing analytical tools for cumulative effects (or ecosystem-based analyses) • IEAs at multiple scales (from the California Current to sub-Puget Sound scales) • EBM-based analyses across different scales • Expanded System of Pilot Projects beyond Murrow Bay, Elkhorn Slough, Port Orford, the San Juans, etc

12. Regional Challenges, Cont • Building the Shrinking Institutional Infrastructure • Analytical Capacities • People and Programmatic Capacities • Financial Capacities

13. Meeting the Challenge • Expand location based-strategies to improve experimentation on complex marine resource management (call it EBM or whatever. . . . ) • Puget Sound • Washington MRCs • Prospective MPAs coast-wide • Existing “special use” areas coast-wide (Sanctuaries; Parks; Refuges) • Utilize NEPA (and state analogs) to compel improved analyses of effects and tradeoffs on major infrastructure proposals • Build analytical toolbox for quantifying trade-offs • Scaled IEA initiatives from the California Coastal Current down. . . • Support expanded coastal mapping efforts for multiple downstream benefits • Explore public-private joint ventures to address public capacity issues • Explore new revenue streams and financing strategies • Other ideas?