A Duke University expert is available to comment on findings to be presented next week to President Obama by a White House task force charged with recommending a new national oceans policy.
One of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force's key presidential directives is to develop a "marine spatial planning" framework to allow more efficient use of U.S. ocean resources, while limiting human impacts on marine ecosystems.
Larry B. Crowder, Stephen Toth Professor of Marine Biology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, is an expert in this field who has presented before the White House task force, briefed federal agencies, and shared his insights with numerous scientific, industry, and public audiences over the past five years.
Marine spatial planning would change how the nation's ocean waters are managed, Crowder says, by implementing a system of ocean zoning that would allocate and coordinate the management of marine resources among interests such as fishing, shipping, wildlife conservation, oil and gas development, and renewable energy.
Such a policy would bring a unity of purpose to the 20 federal agencies and nearly 150 laws that govern U.S. ocean waters, Crowder believes.
Working with Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Crowder is leading a policy lab on the issue, bringing together stakeholders from industry and the private sector. He also interacts regularly with the environmental community.
The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force was established in June 2009 and is composed of senior policy officials from the executive departments, agencies and offices represented on the U.S. Committee on Ocean Policy. _ _ _ _
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