January 24, 2003 Public Meeting of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy

Public Meeting, January 24, 2003 Washington, D.C.
Fourteenth Meeting of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy
Ronald Reagan International Trade Center Amphitheater
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.
January 24, 2003

Commissioners in Attendance:

Honorable James D. Watkins, (Admiral, USN (Ret.)) - Chair
Dr. Robert Ballard, Ph.D.
Mrs. Lillian Borrone
Ms. Ann D'Amato
Vice Admiral Paul G. Gaffney II, USN
Professor Marc J. Hershman
Mr. Paul L. Kelly
Mr. Christopher Koch
Dr. Frank Muller-Karger
Mr. Edward B. Rasmuson
Dr. Andrew A. Rosenberg
Honorable William D. Ruckelshaus
Dr. Paul A. Sandifer

Meeting Attendees
A list of meeting attendees, including their affiliation where provided, is included in Appendix 1.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2003

Welcome
The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy held its fourteenth public meeting on January 24, 2003, in Washington, D.C., to discuss a multitude of issues associated with developing a new national ocean policy. This was the second public meeting which focused on the deliberation of policy options by the Commissioners. A public comment period also was held.

Mirroring the initial public deliberation held by the Commission in November 2002, two documents provided the framework for the policy discussions. The first document was the Commission’s draft Table of Contents (pdf, 100kb). The second document was the Draft Policy Options for January 24, 2003 (pdf, 200kb). Both documents were distributed to the public at the meeting. In his remarks, the Chairman emphasized that the information on the Draft Policy Options slides should be considered pre-decisional and that language on the slides would be the subject of discussion in open public session. He also stressed that the text on the slides may be modified based on the discussions that were about to take place. He urged those in attendance to refer to the meeting transcript for the full context of the discussions. The Chair noted that the Commission would use the transcript from the meeting as the minutes, so that document would be available for review on the website. The transcript is now available in a series of PDF files. The links to those files are below.

Although there was some crossover discussion from the November 22, 2002, presentation of governance issues, this meeting focused on the first-time presentation of many new topical areas not covered at the previous deliberative meeting, including:

The presentations of draft policy options were initiated by representatives of the Commission’s various Working Groups. The Governance options were presented by Bill Ruckelshaus, Governance Working Group Chairman. The Stewardship Working Group options were presented by Vice Admiral Paul Gaffney, II, USN, acting on behalf of Stewardship Chairman Dr. Paul Sandifer. Commissioners Dr. Robert Ballard and Dr. Frank Muller-Karger, assisted by Dr. Ken Turgeon of the Commission staff, presented options on behalf of the Research, Education and Marine Operations (REMO) Working Group, acting on behalf of REMO Chairman Dr. Jim Coleman.

Discussion by the full Commission followed the presentation of each set of policy options. Two types of policy options were brought before the full Commission. One set was policy options that reflected the consensus of the Working Group and were being brought to the full Commission for deliberation. The other set was policy options that required additional insight and guidance from the full Commission before further discussions could proceed on the Working Group level.
As was true in November 2002, the Working Groups were not seeking final approval on any of the draft policy options. Rather, they were seeking perspectives and input from the full Commission so that the staff could prepare materials for the next phase of the deliberations.
The 16-member Commission currently is in the deliberative phase of its work, which will continue over the next few months. In November 2002, the Commission completed its fact-finding phase, which included nine regional meetings in every coastal area of the nation and the Great Lakes. Based on information gathered at the public meetings and its in-depth analysis of U.S. coastal policies, the Commission will compile findings and recommendations that will be presented to Congress and the President in a final report in 2003.

The next full Commission meeting is scheduled for the last week of March/first week of April in Washington, D.C. The specific date has not been determined. The site will be the George Washington University Marvin Center.

Transcript for January 24, 2003

Public Meeting, January 24, 2003 Washington, D.C. Minutes

Public Meeting, January 24, 2003 Washington, D.C.

Minutes