In quite a few meetings and conference calls, I’ve heard people ask what the Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC) is and what it’s doing. Usually they’ve only heard that it was set up a couple years ago by the governors of the northeastern states to advance regional ocean management. Other than that, NROC seems to be a mystery to lots of people engaged in ocean management and policy. NROC (apparently) doesn’t have its own website, and googling turns up surprisingly little info. To shed some light on the matter, here are documents that describe NROC’s purpose and activities: Update on NROC (Sept 2008), NROC Report to Governors (October 2007), and Oceans Resolution (June 2007). Here’s an excerpt from the 1st document, dated Sept 2008:
In 2005 (and subsequent years) the NEGC/ECP [New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers] passed resolutions that created and provided direction to the Oceans Working Committee (OWC). (In the initial resolve they created the Northeast Regional Ocean Council to serve as the US component of the OWC.) The geographic extent of the OWC initiative is from Newfoundland – Labrador to Connecticut.
In the past three years the Council and Working Group has received multiple briefing on the progress of these initiatives. The ongoing dialogue has focused on the intersection of the OWC and Gulf of Maine Council (GOMC) – which was created by the Premiers and Governors in 1989 for ostensibly the same purposes however was confined to the Gulf of Maine. (See table below for a NROC-GOMC side-by-side comparison).
Northeast Regional Ocean Council – NROC is a state-federal partnership. It consists of state representatives from the six New England states and federal representatives from eleven federal agencies. Responsibility for chair of the organization rotates on an annual basis among the states and a federal representative serves as co-chair. It has formed three standing committees with membership open to interested individuals. Each of these committees is developing a 12-18 month work plan for consideration at the October 29th meeting of NROC. (see summary of prospective tasks below)
Oceans Working Committee – There are numerous regional coastal and ocean management initiatives underway in Canada (e.g. OTG, RCOM, GOMC, ESSIM, Northumberland Strait etc.) that engage provincial and federal agencies. Simultaneously each province is focusing on the development of internal coastal policies/programs. Similar to the NROC situation, the geographic area is large and varied, and thus also the range of issues. Finally, in several of the provinces federal/provincial relations at this time are not conducive to highly collaborative inter-governmental initiatives. As a result of these conditions no substantive progress, specific to the OWC, has been achieved.
Here’s a map showing the approximate geographic scope of regional bodies for ocean governance in the northeastern United States and maritime Canada. Click on the map to make it bigger.
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