By ecoRI.org News
staff
In Rhode Island and
around the country, coastal communities are working to generate new industries,
support job creation, and provide food and services to an ever-increasing
population, through planning to manage and sustain the ocean’s resources. The
nation’s fisheries and offshore renewable energy resources represent part of
the answer.
The fisheries film “Ocean Planning: Enhancing and Protecting
out Fisheries” offers thinking from practitioners about how
ocean planning, with its emphasis on integrating planning approaches across
multiple resources and user groups, could help solve complicated economic,
social and environmental issues challenging the industry.
The recently released
first film “America’s Ocean
Economy: Challenges and Opportunities” provides an overview of ocean
planning as a tool for ocean managers, practitioners and a wide range of public
and private partners to collaborate on ways to share and protect ocean
resources, such as fishing stocks, shipping lanes and recreational areas.
“Globally, people
share the same challenges associated with growing coastal populations and the
pressures they are putting on ocean resources,” said Jennifer McCann, director
of extension programs for Rhode Island Sea Grant and of U.S. coastal programs
at the University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center. “Our hope is these
films will crystallize for people how these challenges can also be economic
opportunities for improving how we manage our oceans for this and future
generations.”
The film series is part of Rhode Island’s
effort to establish a model ocean planning state program and to help inform
discussions about ocean planning in the Northeast.