Below is a brief description of the eleventh public meeting, the ninth in a series of nine regional meetings. The agenda, minutes, testimony and responses to follow-up questions will be posted when they become available.

Description
Agenda (including links to speakers' written statements and follow-up questions)
Summary
Minutes (pdf, 312kb)

The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy held its eleventh public meeting September 24-25, 2002, in the John G. Shedd Aquarium’s Phelps Auditorium, 1200 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois.

At the meeting, the Commission heard presentations on coastal and ocean issues of concern to the Great Lakes Region. The agenda included invited speakers representing local and regional government agencies and non-governmental organizations and comments from the public.

Issues highlighted at the meeting included:

• Natural Resources
• Non-point Source Pollution
• Governance
• Invasive Species
• Education
• Climate Prediction

The Commission will use the information received at the meeting to help formulate its recommendations for a coordinated and comprehensive national ocean policy, as required by the Oceans Act of 2000. This was the ninth in a series of nine region-specific meetings held by the Commission.

• Ms. Marcia Jimenez (pdf, 128kb) – Commissioner, City of Chicago Department of Environment, for the Honorable Richard M. Daley, Mayor of Chicago
• Mr. Donald Vonnahme (pdf, 72kb) – Director, Office of Water Resources/Department of Natural Resources, State of Illinois
  

10:20 a.m.

• Release of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy’s Mid-Term Report, “Developing a National Ocean Policy”

10:25 a.m.

• The Honorable James Connaughton (pdf, 92kb) – Chairman, White House Council on Environmental Quality

11:10 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. - Natural Resources Panel

• Mr. William F. Hartwig (pdf, 172kb) - Regional Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior – Recommendations for the Great Lakes Region
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 72kb)
    
• Mr. Cameron Davis (pdf, 184kb) – Executive Director, Lake Michigan Federation
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 120kb)
    
• Mr. Marc Gaden (pdf, 276kb) – Communications Officer, Great Lakes Fishery Commission – Intergovernmental Relations in Great Lakes Fishery Management
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 468kb)
• Dr. Thomas C. Johnson (pdf, 108kb) – Director, Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota - Duluth - Rationale and Needs for Basic Research by Academic Institutions on the Laurentian Great Lakes and Other Large Lakes of the World
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 132kb)
    

12:45 p.m. Break

1:45 – 3:45 p.m. - Non-point Source Pollution Panel

• Mr. Robert H. Wayland III (pdf, 128kb) – Director, Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 553kb)
• Ms. Sarah Chasis (pdf, 180kb) – Water and Coasts Program Director, Natural Resources Defense Council
• Mr. Ray P. Bardole (pdf, 64kb) – Farmer, Rippey, Iowa
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 60kb)
• Dr. Dan Walker (pdf, 172kb) – Senior Program Officer, Ocean Studies Board, National Academies
• Dr. Dennis R. Keeney (pdf, 356kb) – Senior Fellow, Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy - Managing Agricultural Lands to Minimize Non Point Source Nutrient Losses, With Specific Reference to the Nitrogen Contributions to the Gulf of Mexico from the Upper Mississippi River Basin
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 84kb)
    

3:45 p.m. Break

3:55 – 5:35 p.m. - Governance Panel

• Dr. Frank L. Kudrna (pdf, 240kb) – Member, Board of Directors, Great Lakes Commission
• Mr. James Chandler (pdf, 120kb) – International Joint Commission
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 116kb)
    
• Dr. William Eichbaum (pdf, 168kb) – Vice President, Endangered Species, World Wildlife Fund
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 72kb)
    
• Mr. Jeff Gray (pdf, 100kb) – Manager, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve

5:35 – 6:00 p.m. Commission Business

• Approval of Minutes
• Working Group Meeting Reports
  

6:00 p.m. Adjourn


(top)


WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2002

8:30 - 10:10 a.m. - Invasive Species Panel

• Ms. Lori Williams (pdf, 120kb) – Executive Director, National Invasive Species Council
• Dr. James T. Carlton (pdf, 64kb) – Director, Williams College-Mystic Seaport - Marine Bioinvasions: Vectors, Invasion Pulse, and Strategies
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 80kb)
• Mr. Richard Harkins (pdf, 76kb) Vice President of Operations, Lake Carriers’ Association
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 44kb)
• Dr. Jeffrey M. Reutter (pdf, 152kb) – Director, Ohio Sea Grant College Program – Invasive Species: Their Impact and Our Response
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 148kb)
    

10:10 a.m. Break

10:20 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Education Panel

• Dr. Eric Lindstrom (pdf, 108kb) – Director, Ocean.US
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 316kb)
    
• Dr. Wendell Mohling (pdf, 132kb) – Associate Executive Director for Professional Programs, National Science Teachers Association - Where are We Going in Science Education
• Dr. Bruce Carr (pdf, 96kb) – Director of Education, American Zoo and Aquarium Association – America’s Aquariums: Roles, Capacities and Partnerships for Ocean Education
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 112kb)
    
• Dr. Paul Boyle (pdf, 148kb) – Acting Director, New York Aquarium and Director, Osborne Laboratories of Marine Science
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 112kb)
    

12:00 p.m. Break

12:45 – 2:25 p.m. Climate Prediction Panel

• Dr. Raymond P. Motha (pdf, 240kb) - Chief Meteorologist, World Agricultural Outlook Board, U.S. Department of Agriculture- Application of Weather and Climate for Agriculture
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 64kb)
    
• Dr. Ronald D. McPherson (pdf, 240kb) – Executive Director, American Meteorological Society – Prediction as a Mechanism for Coping with Climate Variability and Change
  • Response to the Commission’s Follow-up Questions (pdf, 80kb)
    
• Dr. Lisa M. Goddard (pdf, 240kb) – Associate Research Scientist, International Research Institute for Climate Research, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory/Columbia University – Climate Prediction Capabilities
• Dr. Terrence M. Joyce (pdf, 240kb) – Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - Abrupt Climate Change and the Oceans
  

2:25 p.m. Break

2:30 – 4:30 p.m. Public Comment

4:30 p.m. Adjourn


(top)

Summary

At its ninth regional meeting, held September 24-25, 2002, in Chicago, Illinois, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy released its mid-term report, Developing a National Ocean Policy. The report highlights key observations and challenges based on the Commission’s initial public meetings, held from September 2001 through June 2002. The regional areas covered by the report include the Southeast, Florida and the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Southwest, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands and the Northwest. The document includes three appendices. Appendix I lists and categorizes all of the recommendations presented to the commission by invited panelists and the public. Appendix II includes one-page summaries of the panelists and public comments received during the period covered by the study. Appendix III is the Commission’s Toward a National Ocean Policy document, which was released for public review and comment in July 2002.
The topic areas discussed at the public meeting in Chicago included:

• Natural Resources
• Non-point Source Pollution
• Governance
• Invasive Species
• Education
• Climate Prediction

Following the invited and public testimony on September 25, the Commission’s Working Groups chairs reported on the one-day meeting each group held on September 23. Highlights included:

• Research, Education and Marine Operations Working Group – The group continued to focus in on the issues that will form the basis of its recommendations to the full Commission. According to the chairman, Dr. James Coleman, the group plans to have issue papers with draft policy options by the October 30 meeting in Washington, D.C. The group also reviewed and discussed the initial results of the survey CORE – the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education –conducted for the Commission on U.S. marine academic infrastructure and human resources. Science Advisory Panel member Dr. Sharon Walker briefed the group on her draft K-12 education white paper and discussed with Commissioners and other Panel members additional areas of consideration. Commission staff provided an update on the facilities assessment report that is currently underway, and the group suggested points of further study. There was also a discussion of key research issues the Commission should address.
  
  
• Stewardship Working Group – The working group met with experts on water quality, water monitoring and nonpoint source pollution to further scope out these issues as they relate to the Commission’s work and to assist in the development of draft recommendations in these areas. The working group discussed current monitoring regimes and potential strategies to improve and coordinate monitoring efforts. The working group also discussed the existing regulatory regimes that address water pollution, and identified some of the major pollution issues that need to be addressed. According to the chairman, Dr. Paul A. Sandifer, the group also discussed a draft concept of how to organize living marine resource management issues that would take into account the testimony presented to the Commission and the group’s discussions with its Science Advisory Panel members. In addition, the working group is defining the terms it will use in its draft recommendations in an effort to clarify certain terms for the Commission as well as the public. Informal education also received attention from the group, which has asked several Commissioners and Science Advisory Panel members with expertise in the area to draft a white paper on the topic.
  
  
• Governance Working Group – Working group chairman, Bill Ruckelshaus, reported that the group held extensive discussions on how to develop recommendations for the coastal management issues the Commission must deal with as part of its mission. As part of this effort, the group looked at potential recommendations for a national coordinating body and ran several issues through this framework as a test of its viability. The group also measured the idea for a national coordinating body against the Commission’s Elements document. Finally, staff was directed to continue their development of background papers that explore in more detail the potential effectiveness, functions, and structure of a coordinating body.
  
  
• Investment & Implementation Working Group – Did not meet.

In other business, the Commission approved the minutes of the June 13-14 Meeting in Seattle, Washington, subject to staff technical changes. The minutes will be circulated to the presenters for their review, and should be available on the web site within a month.

(top)

Commission Follow-up Questions

Based on testimony received at the meeting, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy posed specific follow-up questions to many of the presenters. The responses received by the Commission become part of the record for the meeting. The list of current responses includes only the electronic files received by the Commission. To access these documents, go to the individual’s name listed above, or use the links provided below. Please note that the current list of responses does not include responses received in hard copy by the Commission.


Responses to Follow-up Questions:

• Dr. Thomas C. Johnson (pdf, 132kb)
• Mr. Roy P. Bardole (pdf, 60kb)
• Dr. Dennis R. Keeney (pdf, 84kb)
• Dr. Raymond P. Motha (pdf, 64kb)
• Dr. Ronald D. McPherson (pdf, 80kb)
• Mr. William F. Hartwig (pdf, 72kb)
• Mr. Cameron Davis (pdf, 120kb)
• Mr. James Chandler (pdf, 116kb)
• Dr. Jeffrey Reutter (pdf, 148kb)
• Dr. Bruce Carr (pdf, 112kb)
• Dr. Paul Boyle (pdf, 112kb)
• Mr. William Eichbaum (pdf, 72kb)
• Dr. Eric Lindstrom (pdf, 316kb)
• Mr. Robert H. Wayland III (pdf, 553kb)
• Mr. Richard Harkins (pdf, 44kb)
• Mr. Marc Gaden (pdf, 468kb)
• Dr. James T. Carlton (pdf, 80kb)

(top)