Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force Meeting - Live Tweet

This afternoon, the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force will hold a regional meeting in Honolulu at 1:30.  I will attend and will live-tweet at twitter.com/hawaiioceanlaw.

Per the Council of Environmental Quality, the Task Force's purpose is:

To engage the public in and take public comment on the work of the Ocean Policy Task Force. On June 12th, President Obama charged the Task Force with developing a recommended national policy that ensures protection, maintenance, and restoration of oceans, our coasts, and the Great Lakes as well as a recommend framework for improved stewardship, within 90 days. On September 17th, the Task Force released its interim report on this phase of its work and released it 30-days of public comment. Comments may be posted at www.whitehouse.gov/oceans.

The President also asked the Task Force to develop a framework for effective coastal and marine spatial planning within the next 90 days. As the Task Force is now focusing its work on marine and coastal spatial planning and it would especially benefit from comments relating to that issue.

TASK FORCE MEMBERS EXPECTED TO ATTEND:

Chair Nancy Sutley, White House Council on Environmental Quality (via satellite) 

Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

Adm. Thad Allen, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant (via satellite)

Dr. Wendy Wiltse, Pacific Island Office, EPA Region 9

Rear Adm. Manson Brown, Commander, Coast Guard Fourteenth District

Ms. Eileen Sobeck, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks (via satellite)

Rear Admiral Michael A. Giorgione, Civil Engineer Corps, United States Navy Commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific and Pacific Fleet Civil Engineer

PRELIMINARY AGENDA:

• Chair Nancy Sutley, White House Council on Environmental Quality
• Welcome from Local Representative (TBD)
• Background of Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, Agenda for Public Meeting, Introduction of Task Force Members (10 minutes)
• Task Force members

EXPERT PANELS (45 minutes)

• Indigenous Perspectives on Science and Conservation: Kahu M. Kalani Souza, Executive Director, Olohana Foundation
• Partnerships and Governance: Lelei Peau, Deputy Director, American Samoa Dept. of Commerce
• Water Quality and Marine Debris: Marvin Heskett, Director, TestAmerica; former co-chair, Surfrider Foundation
• Preservation and Conservation of Marine Resources: Dr. Charles Birkeland, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Zoology, University of Hawaii
• Transportation and Tourism: Glenn Hong, CEO, Young Brothers Barges
• Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture: Randy Cates, President/CEO, Cates International
• Climate and Hazard Resilience: Dr. Katherine Courtney, Tetra Tech EMI
• Research and Environmental Biology: Dr. Jo-Ann Leong, Director, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology

PUBLIC COMMENT (2 hours)

• Sam Pooley, Director, NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center Director, will moderate

Members of the public can access the meeting in three ways: by attending in person at one of the sites listed below; by calling into the listen only phone line (888-324-8128/International: 630-395-0060; participant code: 5752428); or via live webstream at http://www.tipg.net/noaa/.

The task force interim policy is available here.

Comments

[Phyllis Coochie Cayan]

Aloha,

One point that all of these policies should acknowledge -- the right of the native peoples and the residents of Hawaii and all other islands to ACCESS the ocean for sustenance, recreation, spiritual and cultural practices and so on. There are too many buildings, private landowners, military bases, residential areas that block the traditional paths to the ocean. This must be remedied. Remove the gates, the barriers and re-create and keep open the pathways to the ocean for all peoples.

I agree the policy needs to be more pro-active to keep the ocean free of pollution, overfishing and all the negative human activities that impact the marine life and shoreline ecosystem. clean up the ocean, then keep it clean for the marine life as well as for man's careful use of this resource.

thank you.