The following was released by the Northeast Regional Planning Body:

Thank you for your interest in ocean planning efforts in the Northeast. This is the first of a series regular email updates covering the broad range of stakeholder engagement efforts being undertaken in the intense period of ocean planning activities over the coming months.

A lot happened between mid-December 2014 and mid-January 2015:

• Ecosystem Based Management (EBM): Following discussions at the November 2014 RPB meeting, RPB members are working to convene a public event in the first quarter of 2015. At this event, participants will review ongoing NE ocean planning projects, data, and analysis and discuss additional elements that could be considered from an EBM perspective.
• Recreational Characterization and Recreation Industry Engagement: Sailing, SCUBA, and whale watching industry representatives were engaged to discuss preferred data collection methodologies for their industries; the RPB Recreation Work Group will soon review the preferred methods and decide on next steps for data collection. Additionally, marine recreational use data are currently being collected via an online survey.
• Maritime Transportation and Energy Industry Engagement: Ocean planning staff and RPB members are scoping meetings with ports and shipping representatives in the region and nationally to discuss data products, future trends in the industry, and potential concerns with other types of ocean development activities. Similarly, staff and RPB members are scoping discussions with representatives of the energy industry (e.g., electricity transmission and generation).
• Fisheries Characterization and Fisheries Industry Engagement: Phase II of the fisheries characterization project is well underway, with outreach directed at fisheries industry representatives, managers, and scientists. The focus of this work is first, using speed as a proxy to differentiate between areas of fishing vs. other vessel activities (e.g., transit); second, identifying appropriate ways to characterize the lobster fishery in New England; and third, piloting new data collection efforts focused on the charter portion of the fishery.
• Marine Life Characterization: The Marine Life Data Analysis Team continues to focus on issues related to its work such as the study area, species lists to prioritize for continued assessment, and related products.
• Topic-specific work groups (aquaculture and sand and gravel): Ocean planning staff attended the Northeast Aquaculture Conference and Exposition (NACE) on January 15, where they presented information on the ocean planning process. They also sought feedback from industry representatives on the species of focus to improve permitting in federal waters, and best methods to engage industry representatives and other stakeholders. Additionally, state and federal agencies will convene in the coming month to discuss next steps for the sand and gravel work group such as identifying existing sources of information characterizing offshore geology.
• Website Updates: Many updates to the website (http://neoceanplanning.org) are being finalized to help RPB members, staff, and the public better track ocean planning projects and activities through 2016.
• RPB Meetings: The next RPB meeting will likely be held on June 3-4, 2015 (location TBD), and be preceded by a day-long stakeholder forum, which will likely occur in May. The summary from the November 2014 RPB meeting can be found here.

If you know anyone who may want to receive these monthly ocean planning updates, please forward this email to them and request they join the NE RPB mailing list.

ecosystem based management marine life NERPB