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About the Committee on Ocean Policy
ICOSRMI
SIMOR
NSTC JSOST
Pacific Marine Conservation Assessment
Ocean and Coastal Activities
Ocean and Coastal Fact Sheets
Ocean and Coastal Related Announcements and Agency Statements
Public Comment on the Ocean Action Plan
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The Bush Administration's Ocean and Coastal Activities
The Administration's ocean and coastal management practices consist of a combination of actions by various departments, independent agencies, commissions, and institutions that implement and oversee a broad range of ocean and coastal related programs. The Administration’s combined efforts seek to achieve effective conservation and management of our ocean and coastal resources to meet the Nation’s environmental, economic, and social needs while continuing our Nation’s legacy of ocean stewardship.
Click here (pdf, 426Kb) for OMB's Federal Ocean and Coastal Activities report.
Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
Department of Defense
Department of Energy
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Department of Homeland Security
Department of the Interior
Department of Justice
Marine Mammal Commission
National Aeronautic and Space Administration
National Science Foundation
Department of State
Department of Transportation
Department of Agriculture
The mission of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is to provide leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science, and efficient management. The Natural Resources and Environment Mission Area within USDA is comprised of the Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. These agencies work with landowners and other public and private partners to promote natural resource conservation and enhancement on approximately 1.6 billion acres of private and other non-federal lands. The 2002 Farm Bill has provided private landowners with opportunities to receive technical and financial assistance to implement conservation systems and practices that help achieve economic objectives while conserving and enhancing natural resources. Conservation practices such as conservation buffers, wetlands restoration and enhancement, and nutrient and pesticide management can reduce or eliminate transport of potential non-point source pollutants to adjacent streams and other receiving water bodies. Improving water quality in agricultural watersheds can have a beneficial effect on downstream water quality and ultimately coastal and ocean resources.
Click on the links below to learn more about USDA’s ocean and coastal activities:
Forest Service
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Department of Commerce
The Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts weather and climate, manages fisheries and coastal areas, provides navigation services, and researches atmospheric and oceanic issues. NOAA's mission is to describe and predict changes in the Earth's environment, and to conserve and effectively manage America's coastal and marine resources to ensure sustainable economic opportunities. NOAA’s four major goals include protecting, restoring, and managing the use of coastal and ocean resources through ecosystem-based management; understanding climate variability and change to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond; serving society’s needs for weather and water information; and supporting the Nation’s commerce with information for safe, efficient, and environmentally sound transportation.
Click on the link below to learn more about NOAA’s ocean and coastal activities:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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Department of Defense
The Department of Defense (DoD) is responsible for providing the military forces needed to deter war and protect the security of the United States. The major elements of these forces are the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Each of these Services relies on our oceans and coasts to complete their mission. The DoD Representative for Ocean Policy Affairs (REPOPA) monitors trends in ocean law and policy - including the positive development of the Law of the Sea Convention - monitors and coordinates the Navy's Freedom of Navigation program, and compiles, catalogs and disseminates current information on foreign maritime claims and developments in ocean law and policy that affect military operations. The U.S. Navy trains and fights on, under, and above the world’s oceans. The Office of Naval Research coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The Oceanographer of the Navy provides worldwide, comprehensive, integrated weather and ocean support– meteorology, oceanography, geospatial information and services, and precise time and astrometry - to the Fleet. The Army Corps of Engineers plans, designs, constructs and operates water resources and other civil works projects related to navigation, flood control, environmental protection, and disaster response. Each military Service supports a comprehensive environmental program that assesses the impact of its activities on both land and water-based resources.
Click on the links below to learn more about DoD’s ocean and coastal activities:
Office of Naval Research
Army Corps of Engineers
Department of Energy
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) overarching mission is to advance the national, economic and energy security of the United States; to promote scientific and technological innovation in support of the mission; and to ensure the environmental cleanup of the national nuclear weapons complex. Within the framework of its mission, DOE supports ocean research through the Offices of Science and Fossil Energy. Within the Office of Science, ocean-related research is supported in the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) environmental program. The BER program focuses on understanding the physical, chemical, and biological processes affecting the Earth’s atmosphere, land, and oceans, and how these processes may be affected, either directly or indirectly, by energy production and use. BER currently supports basic research in two areas of ocean sciences: 1) the use of biotechnological tools to determine linkages between carbon and nitrogen cycling in coastal environments, and 2) the role of the oceans in sequestration of atmospheric CO2. Ocean-related research is further supported by the Office of Fossil Energy in the areas of Methane Hydrates, Oil and Natural Gas Technology, and Carbon Sequestration.
Click on the links below to learn more about DOE’s ocean and coastal activities:
Office of Biological and Environmental Research
Office of Fossil Energy
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects human health and safeguards the natural environment upon which all life depends. EPA contributes to the protection of our nation’s ocean and coastal resources by striving to ensure that our waters are successfully managed, protected, and restored to sustain healthy biological communities and to protect human health. EPA’s ocean and coastal protection activities emphasize habitat protection, partnerships, programs addressing ocean-based and land-based sources of coastal and ocean pollution, and water quality monitoring and assessment. Whenever possible, these activities are implemented on an integrated watershed basis, addressing air, land, and ecosystem relationships.
Click on the link below to learn more about EPA’s ocean and coastal activities:
Oceans, Coasts, & Estuaries
Department of Homeland Security
As the nation's primary maritime law-enforcement service, the United States Coast Guard enforces all federal laws, treaties, and international agreements on the high seas and waters under U.S. jurisdiction. The Coast Guard maintains the security of our ports and waterways, and ensures the maritime sovereignty of our nation out to two hundred miles at sea. The Coast Guard enforces laws to preserve our nation's fisheries, protect its marine mammals, and defend the marine environment as a public commonwealth. The Coast Guard actively promotes pollution prevention and response preparedness, and enforces laws prohibiting the discharge of oil, the release of hazardous substances, and the introduction of non-indigenous invasive species into U.S. navigable waters. The Coast Guard develops regulations and enforces laws and international safety, security, and environmental conventions to ensure the safety of fishing vessels, recreational boating, commercial passenger, freight and tank vessels, and the maritime transportation system through focused prevention, compliance, and inspection programs, search-and-rescue, and casualty investigation. The Coast Guard carries out waterways management activities to ensure the safe and efficient use of our navigable waterways for domestic commerce, international trade, recreational use and national defense. The Coast Guard is America's voice in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for maritime issues on a global level.
Click on the link below to learn more about DHS’s ocean and coastal activities:
United States Coast Guard
Department of the Interior
The U.S. Department of the Interior protects and manages the Nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage; provides scientific and other information about those resources; and honors special responsibilities and commitments to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and affiliated Island Communities. The mission includes four strategic components: resource protection, resource use, recreation, and serving communities. Coastal and ocean programs include research and applications in geology, biology, mapping, and hydrology, and all aspects of oceanography. Additional programs protect coastal and ocean habitats; protect people and property from natural disasters; contribute to the development of an integrated ocean observing system; collect, manage and disseminate data; and manage the mineral resources on the Nation’s outer continental shelf – 1.76 billion acres of offshore Federal submerged lands.
Click on the links below to learn more about DOI’s ocean and coastal activities:
Minerals Management Service
National Park Service
U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Geological
Survey
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Department of Justice
Created in 1909, the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice represents the United States, its agencies and officials in matters relating to environmental quality, public lands and natural resources, Indian lands and native claims, and wildlife and fishery resources. The Division's responsibilities are varied and include both enforcement and defensive work, in both criminal and civil cases. With more than 400 lawyers located in offices in Washington, D.C., Anchorage, Boston, Denver, Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle, the Environment and Natural Resources Division is the nation's largest environmental law firm. The Division has represented virtually every federal agency in courts all over the United States and its territories and possessions, and currently has more than 10,000 active cases. Among the Division's principal responsibilities are: 1) conducting litigation under federal statutes enacted to protect the environment; require the cleanup of hazardous waste or recover the costs of cleanup; regulate air and water pollution; control dredging and filling in navigable waters; and control the use of pesticides; 2) conducting litigation related to the control and abatement of pollution to the nation's air and water resources, the regulation and control of toxic substances, pesticides, and solid wastes; and 3) conducting litigation concerning the management of the fisheries and other living resources of the coastal and marine environments, and the management of the coastal zone.
Click on the link below to learn more about the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division:
Department of Justice
Marine Mammal Commission
The Marine Mammal Commission and its Committee of Scientific Advisors on Marine Mammals, created under Title II of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, are charged with overseeing domestic and international actions to further the policies and provisions of the Act and advising Congress and the Federal regulatory agencies with respect to marine mammal protection and conservation. Because of its independent status and the scientific expertise of its Committee of Scientific Advisors, the Commission is able to provide objective, science-based advice. The Commission also carries out a research program of its own which complements its ongoing oversight of the complex issues involving the conservation, protection, and management of marine mammals and their habitats in the United States and abroad.
Click on the link below to learn more about MMC’s ocean and coastal activities:
Marine Mammal Commission
National Aeronautic and Space Administration
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) ability to study the Earth’s oceans from space has become essential to progress in oceanography, given the global reach of the Earth’s oceans and their extensive interactions with the atmosphere in shaping the Earth’s climate. The primary objectives of NASA’s Oceanography program are to describe, understand, and predict the time-varying three-dimensional circulation of the ocean and the biological regimes of the upper ocean as determined from space. The Oceans and Coastal programs encompass core research within the sub-disciplines of Physical and Biological Oceanography. Aspects of oceanographic modeling are also supported within the Global Modeling and Analysis Program, and the high-latitude ice-covered oceans are supported by the Cryospheric Sciences Program. Oceanographic research is integrated with other aspects of the Earth system through NASA’s interdisciplinary program.
Click on the links below to learn more about NASA’s ocean and coastal activities:
Destination Earth
The Earth Observing System Project Science Office
SeaWiFS Project
Ocean Surface Topography from Space
Measuring Ocean Winds from Space
Cryospheric Sciences Program
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) supports ocean science research and education, including disciplinary and interdisciplinary research efforts and the means (i.e. ships and other equipment, necessary to access the oceans from the surface to deep in the sea floor) for conducting ocean research. Through a peer-reviewed grant proposal system, NSF annually invests more than $300 million in ocean science activities conducted by universities and other organizations, making it the largest federal supporter of academic basic research in the ocean sciences. NSF’s Directorate for Geosciences, Division of Ocean Sciences supports basic research and education to further understand all aspects of the global oceans and their interactions with the Earth and the atmosphere. NSF's Office of Polar Programs provides support for investigations in a range of scientific disciplines, including a number of areas of ocean-related research. Finally, The Directorate for Biological Sciences provides support for research to advance understanding of the underlying principles and mechanisms governing life and is organized into four divisions that fund research on marine organisms or related to marine ecosystems and support marine research infrastructure.
Click on the links below to learn more about NSF’s ocean and coastal activities:
Directorate for Geosciences, Division of Ocean Sciences
Directorate for Biological Sciences
Office of Polar Programs
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Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS) coordinates and formulates U.S. government policy on international oceans issues, and then implements that policy by working in all available venues - U.S. bilateral relationships with nation-states and non-governmental organizations, regional organizations, the United Nations, multilateral conferences and meetings - to ensure that U.S. interests in international oceans issues are realized. Within its Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, the Department of State has two offices dedicated to international oceans issues: the Office of Marine Conservation, which has primary responsibility for international fisheries matters and related problems, and the Office of Oceans Affairs, which has primary responsibility for international ocean law and policy, marine pollution, marine mammals, polar affairs, and marine science. In addition, State Department officers in U.S. embassies and consulates throughout the world interact with international counterparts as oceans-related issues arise.
Click on the link below to learn more about DOS’s ocean and coastal activities:
Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs
Department of Transportation
The Department of Transportation (DOT) is involved in U.S. oceans and coastal policy primarily through two of its agencies - the Maritime Administration and the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, both of which support DOT's strategic goals of safety, mobility, global connectivity, environmental stewardship and security. The Maritime Administration (MARAD) builds on our maritime heritage, promoting a U.S. maritime industry for the continued security and prosperity of the Nation. The Agency's programs seek to assure that the United States has efficient ports and terminals with modern intermodal connections; sufficient commercial shipping capacity to meet the needs of the Nation's growing economy and of the Department of Defense in times of national emergency; adequate shipbuilding and repair service and facilities; and an available professional workforce for employment in the marine transportation system. The Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC), a wholly owned government corporation within DOT, is responsible for the operations and maintenance of the U.S. portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System, also known as "America's Fourth Seacoast", is an active North American transportation corridor for the movement of commercial goods into a robust economic region.
Click on the links below to learn more about DOT’s ocean and coastal activities:
Maritime Administration
The Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation
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