President establishes new National Ocean Policy

On July 19 President Obama accepted the long-awaited recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and immediately issued an Executive Order establishing a new National Ocean Policy.  This is an important milestone that has been applauded by a broad cross section of the oceanographic scientific community as well as most marine conservation organizations .  

You can read a good report by Laura Cantral (Joint Ocean Commission Initiative) and Andrew Light (Center for American Progress) about this significant ocean policy event at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/07/ocean_taskforce.html. 

If you want to look at the actual Presidential Order, go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-stewardship-ocean-our-coasts-and-great-lakes

There are many encouraging and positive aspects of this new policy -- long overdue. In due course, I will write about select issues in the weeks ahead as it becomes clearer how this will translate into practical benefits for an enlightened ocean policy.

This marks a good day for the Oceans.