| "It gives us a scientific guide to balance environmental protections with economic development objectives." |
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| Grover Fugate, Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council | |
Since 1983, Rhode Island coastal resource managers have successfully developed six special area management plans (SAMPs) to deal with a wide variety of issues, including watershed and resource management, economic development, and hazards. Recently, managers in that state adopted the nation’s first SAMP to address ocean management.
“Rhode Island is at the forefront in our national effort to better manage our ocean environment,” says Grover Fugate, executive director of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC). “No other state in the nation has attempted such a comprehensive and ambitious marine spatial planning effort to understand and plan for ocean resources.”
In addition to identifying areas that merit special protection, Rhode Island’s Ocean SAMP designates areas in the state’s offshore waters as being appropriate for renewable energy and goes so far as to suggest a suitable site in nearby waters under federal jurisdiction.
The plan includes comprehensive new regulatory standards for offshore development that Fugate believes will make Rhode Island a leader in managing offshore renewable energy.
The Ocean SAMP also protects current uses and habitats through zones for commercial fishing; critical habitats for fish, marine animals, and birds; marine transportation; and more.
Adopted by the CRMC on October 19, 2010, the plan is awaiting final approval from NOAA.
Defining a SAMP
Special area management plans are loosely defined in a single sentence of a 1980 amendment to the Coastal Zone Management Act. Coastal managers use SAMPs when the problems in a distinct area go beyond what can be addressed by existing local, state, and federal policies.
Around the country, SAMPs have been developed to deal with a wide variety of issues, such as water quality, coastal habitats, endangered species, economic revitalization, and preserving cultural resources.
Benefits of their implementation include better resource protection, tailored regulations, more predictability in governmental decision-making, and improved relationships between stakeholders and regulators.
Previous Experience
For Rhode Island, SAMPs have been an “important tool that relies on both science and public input to help us develop strategies to protect and manage our ocean and coastal resources,” says Fugate.
As part of its previous SAMP work, the CRMC applied marine spatial planning techniques to zone all the waters off the state of Rhode Island into six water types.
The Ocean SAMP built on this previous work by further refining offshore zones and providing for a renewable resource zone in the offshore environment.
Large and Ambitious
Although the Ocean SAMP was “much larger and more ambitious” than the state’s previous SAMP efforts, Fugate says the CRMC used the “same marine spatial planning techniques to create a plan to effectively manage Rhode Island’s offshore waters.”
He adds, “We used the best available science and worked with well-informed and committed stakeholders, researchers, environmental and civic organizations, federal, state, and local agencies, and the Narragansett Tribe.”
The resulting Ocean SAMP provides a “comprehensive understanding of this complex and rich ecosystem, as well as describes how the people living in this region have long used and depended upon these offshore resources,” Fugate says. “It gives us a scientific guide to balance environmental protections with economic development objectives.”
Government Mandate
In 2005, Fugate says the CRMC recognized that the uses of marine resources in Rhode Island were intensifying, with looming issues such as offshore aquaculture, liquefied natural gas, resource extraction, and offshore energy.
In 2007, with a government mandate that offshore wind resources provide 15 percent of the state’s electrical power by 2020, the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources came to the CRMC with its eye on several potential sites for wind farms.
“We told them that given what we know, that was not the best solution to the problem,” Fugate says. In response, the CRMC proposed the creation of an Ocean SAMP.
Work on the Ocean SAMP began in December of 2007. Two years and more than $8 million later, Rhode Island is now the first state in the nation to have zoned its offshore waters for diverse activities, including renewable energy development.
Within Boundaries
The Ocean SAMP study boundary includes approximately 1,500 square miles of portions of Block Island Sound, Rhode Island Sound, and the Atlantic Ocean. The study area, which extends 30 miles offshore, includes both state and federal waters and abuts the state waters of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York.
Fugate says issues that had to be addressed included commercial and recreational fisheries; the vessels transporting people and cargo to area ports and harbors; and migratory fish, marine mammals, birds, and sea turtles that travel throughout the region. Additional studies included mapping ocean floor geology and collecting data about cultural resources and physical oceanography.
In addition to increased marine transportation traffic, issues facing the area include the impacts of climate change and the need for renewable energy infrastructure.
Data Gathering
One of the biggest challenges of the SAMP process, Fugate says, was gathering the extensive amount of data needed to shed light on all the issues and turning them into usable geographic information system (GIS) layers.
“The federal agencies wanted three years of data,” Fugate says. “We knew we needed to get the resources to commit to getting a three-year data set and then gathering all the existing data we could get our hands on.”
A wide array of existing data was collected, including European research, area environmental impact statements conducted for other projects, information from the U.S. Department of Defense on ordinance sites, and details about recreational boat races.
Fugate notes that research for much of the marine area did not exist and is expensive to conduct. “We decided to try to be smart about how we did this, and we focused our efforts on doing detailed research in specific areas and then conducting a tiered analysis.”
In addition to the board and staff of the CRMC, the Ocean SAMP management team included the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography and Rhode Island Sea Grant, and was supported by a stakeholder group, technical advisory committee, and science advisory task force.
Model Effort
“It’s been exhausting, but I’m very proud of it,” Fugate says. “We were able to complete this massive study on time, on budget, while maintaining the highest academic standards, and including robust stakeholder involvement.”
He adds, “We don’t have all the answers, but I think the whole process is a model for other states.”
To read the Rhode Island Ocean SAMP, go to http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/oceansamp/. For more information, you may contact Grover Fugate at (401) 783-7112, or gfugate@crmc.ri.gov.
