Ocean Commissions: Ocean Policy Review and Outlook Page: 4 of 21
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Ocean Commissions:
Ocean Policy Review and Outlook
Background and Analysis
The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission have
made numerous recommendations for changing U.S. ocean policy and management.
In considering legislative responses to the findings and recommendations of the
ocean commissions and the President's response, Congress may consider compre-
hensive bills encompassing a broad array of cross-cutting concerns, including ocean
exploration; ocean and coastal observing systems; federal organization and
administrative structure; and ocean and coastal mapping integration; or they may
consider addressing each concern separately.
Congress has shown interest in ocean affairs in recent decades, examining
components of the federal ocean programs, enacting legislation creating new ocean
programs, and taking steps to define a national ocean policy. The Marine Resources
and Engineering Development Act of 1966 (P.L. 89-454) established a National
Council on Marine Resources and Engineering Development in the White House and
initiated work by a presidential bipartisan Commission on Marine Science,
Engineering, and Resources. Dr. Julius Stratton, then recently retired president of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, at the time, Chairman of the Board of the
Ford Foundation, was appointed commission chairman by President Lyndon Johnson.
The commission, composed of 15 members, was often referred to as the Stratton
Commission. In 1969, the commission completed its final report, Our Nation and
the Sea: A Plan for National Action, and its more than 120 formal recommendations
provided what many considered to be the most comprehensive statement of federal
policy for exploration and development of ocean resources. The study was
instrumental in defining the structure, if not all the substance, of what a national
ocean policy could or should look like. Furthermore, new ocean-oriented programs
were initiated and existing ones were strengthened in the years following the
commission's report, through a number of laws enacted by Congress.
Recommendations of the Stratton Commission led directly, within the following
decade, to forming the National Sea Grant College Program, to creating the National
Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere (NACOA), and to reorganizing
federal ocean programs under the newly established National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Subsequent legislation on estuarine reserves,
national marine sanctuaries, marine mammal protection, coastal zone management,
fishery conservation and management, ocean pollution, and seabed mining also
reflected commission recommendations. Efforts sprang up within the federal
government and among various interagency and federal advisory committees to flesh
out how best to implement a truly comprehensive and forward-looking national ocean
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Ocean Commissions: Ocean Policy Review and Outlook, report, April 25, 2008; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc807855/m1/4/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.