Policy for Use of Ocean Resources Urged

California and 12 other Western states have issued a report declaring they will take the initiative to develop ocean resource policies.

“There’s another frontier out there,” said Oregon state legislator Jim Edmunson. “This report chronicles a real opportunity for the states to expand westward.”

The report was released Friday by the Ocean Resources Committee of the Western Legislative Conference, which represents legislatures from 13 Western states and three Pacific Island governments.

The 32-page report hailed the 1983 proclamation of the Exclusive Economic Zone, which extended the sovereign right of the United States 200 miles off all U.S. state and territorial lands, as a “new American frontier.”

However, the report noted that a “policy vacuum” on ocean resource management has developed since the proclamation, and it urged coastal states to make the issue their top priority.

“We want to have a clear, strong comprehensive policy,” said Oregon state Sen. Bill Bradbury.

The report urged coastal states to establish long-term ocean policies that would push for strong state involvement in ocean resource activities. It also called for a public education campaign to promote the benefits of wisely managed ocean resources.

Other suggestions included:

- Developing plans to reconcile growing, and increasingly conflicting, uses of the ocean such as oil and gas development, mineral mining, hazardous waste disposal and commercial fishing.

- Recognizing that almost all offshore activities have an onshore impact.

- Working with other states and the federal government to form a decision-making partnership in ocean resource management.

The committee, with representatives of five Pacific states and the three islands, said that the economic zone is estimated to contain 15% to 20% of the world’s living resources; that the ocean floor has significant deposits of strategic minerals; and that it has extensive oil and gas reserves and alternative sources of energy.

The Ocean Resources Committee includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, plus the islands of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam.

The Western Legislative Conference also includes the states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.