Best Practices in Ocean Planning

Overview

Ocean permitting and management involves multiple overlapping jurisdictions and highly interconnected ecosystems that make decision making particularly complex. New proposals for development offshore along with ongoing management of the marine transportation system, fisheries, and the multitude of recreational activities have made these complexities particularly apparent in the past two decades.
 
Through NROC’s Ocean Planning Committee, we work to inform ocean management drawing on over twenty years of lessons learned within the region by developing best practices, data, and information to assist in navigating complex and varied management processes. Best practices in this context are specific activities that can be implemented in ocean permitting and management processes that enhance one or more of the following themes: (1) ocean user engagement, (2) agency and interjurisdictional coordination, (3) the use of data and information, and (4) regulatory pre-application practices and efficiencies.