East Coast federal ocean hearing Thursday in Providence

By Beth Daley, GLobe Staff

If you haven’t yet become worried about our oceans, you should be. Rising sea levels, pollution, acidification, crowded seas, overfishing – the ¾ of the world covered in water has got some major challenges.

Now you can have a say in fixing it. Last week, the Obama Administration released the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force Interim Report to manage and protect the nation’s oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. The task force integrates the work on coasts and oceans of all 24 agencies that work on oceans.

A scientist studies the Gulf of Maine (Dina Rudick/Globe photo)

Thursday, the only East Coast public hearing on the draft report will be held at the Convention Center in Providence from 4 to 7 p.m. A 30-day comment period on it will be up next month.

The report includes a proposal for a new national policy to examine environmental sustainability, human health, climate change, social justice and national prosperity when managing the oceans. It also would name the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Office of Science and Technology Policy would lead an interagency national Ocean Council to coordinate ocean issues across different agencies.

It also prioritizes nine categories for action, including ecosystem-based management, regional ecosystem protection and better observing system to help manage the oceans, coasts and Great Lakes.

Here is an AP story on the task force announcement: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090917/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_ocean_policy