Protect the Mid-Atlantic's Important Ocean Places
Our ocean is a major migratory highway and home for a vast array of marine life, including endangered whales, sea turtles, and many fish species. But it is increasingly busy with wind projects, colossal cargo ships chugging through the newly-expanded Panama Canal, and growing demand for offshore sand mining to rebuild beaches.
There’s little coordination between the dozens of agencies with overlapping and sometimes conflicting ocean responsibilities. Now, for the first time ever, coastal states from New York to Virginia have developed, together with federal agencies, regional fisheries managers, and Native American tribes, a coordinated plan to guide the region’s ocean decisions. This ocean playbook will shape agency decisions and must commit to identify and conserve areas important for sea life in order for us to ensure a healthy ocean today and in the future.
Sign your name and tell the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body to protect important ocean places!
Dear Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body Members:
The draft
Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan is a significant achievement in ocean management that can strengthen interagency coordination in ocean decisions. But it must commit agencies to conserve ecologically rich areas and places of high marine biodiversity.
The final plan needs to set a short, definitive deadline – ideally by the end of this year – to identify areas offshore that are important for the health of marine life. These ecologically rich areas should be made public on the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal so managers, businesses and other stakeholders can use the information to make better development decisions.
New and expanding ocean use puts more pressure on our marine life, already stressed from pollution, degradation of ocean habitats, warmer temperatures and ocean acidification. Agencies should commit to use their existing authorities to conserve, to the fullest extent consistent with applicable law, areas important for the health of the ocean environment so that we can ensure the jobs, food and recreation that depend on it.
[For additional impact, add a comment about why you think important ocean places should be protected]
Thank you for your continued work to conserve our ocean's health.
Sincerely,
[your name]
