Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary Publishes Results of Public Comment Period

NOAA's Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary has closed its public comment period for the "scoping" phase of Navigating the Future, the sanctuary's review of its management plan.

During the 60-day public comment period, sanctuary staff hosted seven public meetings, in Port Angeles, Neah Bay, La Push, Ocean Shores, Westport, Olympia and Seattle. Over 160 people attended, offering comments at the facilitated workshops. In addition, 688 comments were received by mail, email, fax and delivered in person.

Public concerns varied widely. Many emphasized the importance of partnerships with the Makah, Quileute, Hoh tribes and Quinault Indian Nation. Other comments were aimed at balancing the resource protection mandate of the sanctuary with emerging demands on the sea, such as aquaculture, wave and wind energy, recreational pressure and coastal development. Yet others were targeted specifically at issues like the Navy's use of sonar and the risk of oil spills. Many commented on the need to understand the ocean better and the pressures confronting it, including climate change.

On December 15, 2008, the sanctuary is releasing two documents: a Scoping Summary and Topics Analysis, which together provide summary and analysis of all of the comments. The first document, Scoping Summary, summarizes all scoping comments received by grouping the comments under 37 topics. A bulleted list of all the comments related to each topic is also provided. The second document, Topics Analysis, provides a brief analysis of each topic, including a description of the topic, examples of public comments related to the topic, the current status of sanctuary involvement in the topic, and any relevant information on the topic published in the sanctuary's 2008 Condition Report.

You can download the documents here:

Scoping Summary (908k pdf)

Topics Analysis Report (384k pdf)

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