Hazards that can impact coastal resources are not limited to hurricanes and tsunamis. Oil spills and toxic blooms also are on the list.
In this edition of Coastal Services we take a look at the lessons learned at the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve when the most serious oil spill in Oregon’s recent history occurred a little over three miles north of the reserve boundary.
This incident demonstrated to reserve staff members, and hopefully to other coastal resource managers, the need to be prepared for such emergencies. South Slough staff members also learned the value of their environmental information and the role they could play in the Natural Resource Damage Assessment process mandated as part of the incident response.
Communication is another critical role coastal resource managers can play before, during, and after disaster strikes.
Maryland Sea Grant College took up this mantle after a bizarre organism seemed to be killing fish and causing skin lesions, confusion, and short-term memory loss in humans.
The Maryland incident spurred scientific debate, caused a storm of national
media attention, political conflict, and public hysteria, and led
to an economic crisis in the state’s fishing industry.
With Sea Grant’s goal of educating the public about science and marine issues, it was the perfect organization to create a documentary that helped put the environmental and societal issues into a larger context.
Other articles in this edition of Coastal Services check into how coastal managers in Massachusetts led a comprehensive coalition to rethink local planning, and how managers in Houston were able to develop a model stormwater wetland project that not only will help clean pollutants from stormwater, but also creates natural habitat and an aesthetically pleasing public space.
We also examine the effort led by Ohio coastal managers to pull together, map, and provide geographically referenced information about the state’s coastal environment as a means to ensure that local and state decision makers have the information they need to wisely manage the Lake Erie watershed.
As always, we hope you find these articles interesting and informative.
-- Margaret A. Davidson
