Opportunities and Challenges for Coastal Management in Oregon

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Opportunities and Challenges for Coastal
Management in Oregon
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Marine Coastal Management
A process by which decisions are taken for the
development, conservation and sustainable use of
marine and coastal systems biophysical, social,
cultural and economic.
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Challenges Opportunities

• Challenges opportunities in coastal management
  Include
• Biological physical systems
• Social, economic and political dimensions
• Available human resources including education
  training of managers and stakeholders
• Institutional legal frameworks
• In the rest of the lecture well explore some
  examples from Oregon

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Are our management actions

• Achievable?
• Affordable (cost time)?
• Popular with decision makers, stakeholders,
  public, voters?

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Challenges The Natural Environment
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Challenges The Natural Environment

• Our biggest challenge is understanding and
  adapting to environmental change whether natural
  or human induced
• Oregons coastal ecosystems - marine and
  terrestrial are adapted for change.
• Our coastal communities and economy not be so
  resilient to change unless it is planned for.

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Changing Beaches and Shorelines
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Oregons Shoreline
Oregons beaches and shoreline are an important
part of our identity. Our coast is where we
live, play and its generate tourism income for
our communities and state. Much of the shoreline
is managed by the state for recreation.
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Impacts on Beaches and Shorelines http//seagrant.
oregonstate.edu/video/flash/oregon-climate/shoreli
ne-effects.html
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Changing Marine Ecosystems Impacts on Fisheries
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Changing Ocean Ecosystems
Harley et al. 2006
Intensified upwelling? Increased ocean
temperature? Increased ocean acidity? Changes
in plankton food chains?
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Ocean Acidification http//seagrant.oregonstate.ed
u/video/flash/oregon-climate/broader-effects.html
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Impacts on Ocean Fisheries

• California current ecosystem has changed often in
  the past
• Any changes due to predicted warming will be
  difficult to detect because of high natural
  variability
• Changes that do occur will affect commercial
  fisheries and recreational fisheries

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Changes in Upwelling http//seagrant.oregonstate.e
du/video/flash/oregon-climate/broader-effects.html

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Impacts on Salmon Fishing
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Salmon - Loss of Habitat
Salmon Habitat Lost in OR, ID, WA

• By 2030 OR could lose15 of its salmon habitat
• By 2090 OR could lose 45 of its salmon habitat

ISAB Climate Change Report 2007

• OR will lose more habitat than WA or ID
• Trout habitat less impacted than salmon habitat
  because salmon are restricted to warmer waters by
  dams and other barriers

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Salmon - Ocean survival

• Warmer waters reduce salmon survival
• Decreased food supply
• Higher metabolic rates and less growth
• Increased migration distances
• Increased predation by warm water species

Source Peterson et al. 2006
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Community and Social Challenges
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Economic Change

• On the ocean increased competition for space from
  the new industrialization of the ocean
• Offshore renewable energy
• Marine farming
• Dredging, dumping etc
• In our communities
• Decline of resource industries
• Tourism
• Immigration
• Retirees
• Rise of the service industry and minimum wage jobs

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Coastal Development and Community Prosperity

• Growth and development present both opportunities
  for and challenges to community economic
  prosperity and ecological sustainability.
• We need to
• Identify and create opportunities for economic
  and environmentally sustainable development of
  our coastal communities.
• Build the capability within coastal communities
  to create and take take advantages of new
  opportunities.

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Learning for Sustainable Communities
Collective learning determines a communitys
ability to take advantage of opportunities for
sustainable economic and ecological
development. Informed individuals communities
are better able to maintain improve the quality
of the ecosystems and natural resources on which
they depend. How can we build human capital,
developing new models for learning and engagement
encompassing K-12, formal and informal learning
strategies and opportunities?
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Changing Stakeholders The Ocean Aware
There is unprecedented awareness among
non-coastal residents of the state of our coastal
and ocean resources. Management, education and
communication actions have to be increasingly
aware of a new community of interest - the ocean
aware. We need to understand the motivations of
this group and encourage initiatives that align
the interests of both new and traditional
stakeholders.
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Changing Stakeholders The NGO Community and a
New Kind of Direct Action
Increasing outreach research activities by
non-governmental organizations industry
associations engaged in marine issues. Stakeholde
r organizations and foundations do not
necessarily represent the wider interests of
coastal communities nor is their research always
agenda free. How can traditional agencies work
with these organizations to leverage new research
resources while giving decision makers and the
public confidence in the integrity and quality of
this research?
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Responding to The Management Challenge
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Linking Research Management
Decision-makers need to educate researchers by
about the kinds of data and information they will
need, and their time lines for decisions.
Researchers in the natural and social sciences
need to educate decision-makers about what is at
stake in the interactions of society and economy
with the natural environment. Two-way dialogue
between researchers and decision-makers is
critical.
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The Data Revolution

• Ecosystem based management demands the collection
  and use of vast amount of data about our oceans
  and coasts.
• For the first time we have the technology to
  collect, store and disseminate this data to
  specialists and citizenry alike.
• To maximize the value of this data we need to
  transform it into useful information by
• Understanding the needs of potential users of
  coastal and ocean information.
• Considering the skill levels of users and where
  necessary increasing these skill levels.

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Unprecedented Change in Marine Governance

• Pew Commission Ocean Commission early to mid
  00s
• Bush Administration response 2005
• State responses 2005 -present
• E.g. California, Massachusetts, West Coast
  Governors Agreement on Ocean Health etc.
• Obama Administration 2009
• Catch Shares
• Interim Ocean Policy Policy
• Marine Spatial Planning

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Planning for the 21st Century Ocean Uses
Emerging scientific consensus around
ecosystem-based management as a conceptual model
for managing marine systems. It is about
maintaining healthy marine coastal ecosystems
so that they can provide the services humans want
and need for this and future generations. It is
place focused rather than sector focused. EBM
focused research and education explicitly
integrates multiple disciplines and perspectives
and emphasizes their interconnection.
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Planning for the 21st Century Ocean Uses

• Putting EBM into effect means giving greater
  attention to research that supports marine
  spatial planning by
• Identifying management units based on biotic and
  abiotic characteristics and disturbance regimes.
• Establishing the value of the ecosystem services
  provided by these management units.
• Evaluating regulatory and non-regulatory
  management that align incentives for the
  sustainable use of resources within the zones.
• Encouraging adaptive management programs to
  monitor, review and adjust zones and their
  regulation as required.

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State Planning http//seagrant.oregonstate.edu/vid
eo/flash/oregon-climate/government.html
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Take Home Messages

• Coastal management is about change management
• Changes in marine coastal ecosystems are
  unpredictable are a result of both natural
  variability and human induced variability
• Oregons coastal ecosystems - marine and
  terrestrial - are adapted for change
• Coastal communities and their dependence on
  coastal services may not be so resilient to
  change unless it is planned for
• Change planning has to integrate both
  bio-physical and human dimensions of coastal
  systems
• We are only beginning to figure out how to do
  this.

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Questions?