Press Release on National Ocean Policy

Press Release Date: June 20, 2018

Contact: Michael Stocker, mstocker@ocr.org 415.464.7220

Trump Administration Drowns National Ocean Policy

WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, with a stroke of his pen, President Trump repealed the National Ocean Policy – a guidance document representing over ten years of hard legislative work. Ocean policy issues will now be in the hands of the Executive Branch, preventing state and federal agencies from effectively collaborating in making decisions that promote biological diversity, ocean conservation, and sustainable ocean industries.

Michael Stocker, Executive Director of Ocean Conservation Research, brings his experiential response to the Administration’s new Executive Order:

“In the President’s Executive Order, he rescinded the National Ocean Policy act of 2010. The original act reconciled and codified a regulatory framework, crafted for over a decade, to manage our national engagement with the Sea.

“The National Ocean Policy Act consolidated the efforts of state governments, scientists, industry representatives, commercial and recreational fishermen, the US Coast Guard, Fisheries Management Councils, conservation organizations, ocean and coastal tourism interests, and sovereign First Nations people. As such, it represented a nuanced and sound management plan that aimed to preserve ocean engagement and environmental resources now, and for the coming generations.

“In his Executive Order, the President scrapped all of that work to cast the care of the ocean under the “management” of an “Ocean Policy Committee” consisting entirely of Presidential Cabinet members. This is a dangerous consolidation of power under one branch of our government. It promises to hand the ocean over to extractive industries and the military at the expense of all other interests – sacrificing the health and safety of American citizens, and the long-term health of our planet.

“Predictably, there is no mention of climate resilience, sea level rise and ocean acidification, conservation of ocean wildlife, social justice in coastal communities, or environmental stewardship of our oceans and Great Lakes. Instead, the thrust of this Executive ocean policy is to extract as much wealth out of the sea as fast as possible, without regard to any long-term consequences.

“This is not a path to “Energy Security” or long-term economic stability, rather it is a roadmap to cash-in on all of the conservation advances made over the last 40 years, leaving the ocean a stripped carcass for the growing and future generations.”