Ocean SAMP featured on sailing web site

April 29, 2014, WAKEFIELD – The Rhode Island Ocean Special Area Management Plan was recently featured by Sailors for the Sea, a Newport-based nonprofit that seeks to educate and engage the boating community in the protection of the world’s oceans. Sandra Whitehouse, Ph.D., Senior Policy Advisor for Ocean Conservancy, wrote an essay on the future of the oceans, highlighting the role of ocean users in the SAMP process.

Founded in 2004, Sailors for the Sea was the outcome of founding member and Chairman David Rockefeller, Jr.’s work on the Pew Oceans Commission, which identified pressing ocean health issues. Whitehouse, a longtime Newport resident and avid sailor, also has a long history of environmental activism – as a marine biologist, coastal manager and former CRMC chair, and ocean policy advisor.

In her essay, “How sailors have a voice in the future of our ocean,” Whitehouse cites the goals at the foundation of the National Ocean Policy: protecting, maintaining and restoring ecosystem health, supporting sustainable use and preserving maritime heritage. And any sailor knows, she said, that while the oceans and Great Lakes might appear empty, there are a variety of different uses, and an increasing number of ocean-based projects.

“If we are going to maintain our existing uses and realize the growth opportunities that the ocean affords, while conserving the ecological resources that make it all possible, we need to look at the big picture and move beyond single-sector management,” Whitehouse said in her essay. “We need all stakeholders, including sailors and their representative organizations, to engage in defining the future of our ocean spaces.”

Rhode Island took this approach to marine spatial planning in 2010, when the Rhode Island Ocean Special Area Management Plan (Ocean SAMP) was completed by the RI Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC).

The SAMP is being used to permit and site what could be the country’s first offshore wind farm, in a way that seeks to minimize environmental impacts and reduce user conflicts. The CRMC is set to consider the application in May.

“The SAMP is a good example of smart ocean planning that is based on the best available information of human uses and environmental parameters,” Whitehouse wrote.

The essay highlights the SAMP’s chapter on recreation and tourism, which compiled information on offshore sailboat racing and the economic impacts and value of the industry and associated activities. Whitehouse also highlights the fact that portions of the SAMP area used heavily for boating were designated as Areas of Particular Concern, offering protection from large-scale offshore development by the CRMC. Members of the sailing industry were instrumental in getting this accomplished, she wrote.

“This type of planning approach is now being utilized in federal waters through the National Ocean Policy,” Whitehouse wrote. Out of nine planning regions defined in the Policy for the US and its territories, two are developing ocean plans within their federal waters. One of these, the Northeast Regional Planning Body (NERPB), was launched in 2012 and is co-chaired by CRMC Executive Director Grover Fugate. One of its successes was a recreational boating survey.