Potential responses

Drawing from principles of ecosystem based management, marine spatial planning, and other best practices, assist managers and stakeholders in developing recovery alternatives that facilitate economic and ecosystem resilience .

Develop aquatic habitat restoration strategies that fully assess/prioritize regional impacts and implement corrective actions in an integrated fashion.

Assess, regulate and negotiate land protection and acquisition as needed to protect priority habitats, including the coastal upland buffer zone.

Restore natural hydrology, morphology, and control invasive plant and animal species. Use acquisition, regulation, and other means to protect adjacent uplands.

Determine needs and conduct appropriate research and planning

Develop a gulf-wide program to comprehensively map nearshore subtidal habitats.

Develop and implement ecologically relevant goals and protocols for measuring and monitoring success of fish and wildlife restoration programs.

Coordinate offshore energy planning with long term marine planning effort and land acquisition planning

Map and work to protect all spawning ground habitat used by fish in the Gulf

Commission study on economic value of ecosystem services, and economic impacts of restoration and conservation efforts

Effort should link mapping and critical assessment efforts

Need support for large scale synthesis of existing data sets

Work with community groups to establish additional shared criteria and standards for collecting and sharing data.

Potential responses

Remove gear on sea floor & in water column.

Remove and dispose of debris; Target debris abatement at its sources.

Potential responses

• Identify and remediate toxic hot spots

• Facilitate safe disposal of toxic materials (e.g. waste oil from fishing/recreational vessels)

• Reduce atmospheric and other diffuse sources of toxic contaminant releases

• Increase the geographic range and frequency of sampling

• Expand the range of species and sampling media used

• Explore trophic linkages between species to confidently characterize human health/ecological risk

• Prioritize regionally relevant chemicals of concern with attention to "emerging" contaminants

• Refine tools for understanding risk to human and ecosystem health

• Develop policy tools to effectively address diffuse sources of toxics

Potential responses

• Support research into efficacy of known control measures

• Develop and implement risk assessments for existing and incipient introductions as well as known transport vectors

• Improve monitoring for early detection

• Develop science-based policy recommendations and enhance the capacity of states to minimize introduction through enforcement action

• Support on-the-ground efforts to restore degraded systems

• Support early detection and eradication efforts

• Minimize disturbance that facilitates the spread of AIS

Support research into the role of activities and industries in reporting AIS

 --Commercial shipping

  --Recreational boating

  --Fishing and aquaculture

  --Research and education

  --The pet trade

Potential responses

Create water quality goals that are relevant to the range of ecosystem/human needs and are informed by historical baselines.

TMDL areas need to be more comprehensive.

Clarify Anti-degradation policies, and implement policies.  

Collect needs assessments from the states (SRF, 319, storm water MS4’s, stimulus monies), town plans; review for comprehensive data coverage; and design assessments for “missing” data.   Develop comprehensive monitoring plans at all levels of geographic scales.

Implement correct site selection; identify non-compliant systems; repair systems; maintain systems; improve technology; expand municipal sewage treatment infrastructure.  

Upgrade systems based on ecologically appropriate standards (nutrient remove).  Advance technology to improve the unintended results of higher energy consumption.  Increase funding for SRF.

Identify, correct and prevent non-point sources.  Identify sources, develop additional sources (cranberry farms, horse farms, etc.).  Gather current comprehensive data sources, and supplement that data.  Review current management practices (land use), and supplement these practices.  Implement management practices and assess progress.  Understand the link between estuarine and blue water.

Increase infrastructure of vessel sewage disposal, designate and enforce “no discharge zones”.   Improve Marine Sanitation Device (MSD) Type III technology, revise standards.

Potential responses

Reassess state & provincial programs/policies in light of climate change projections.

Design vulnerability assessments, collect baseline data; implement monitoring and modeling.

Prioritize at-risk resources for acquisition and regulatory protection to facilitate resiliency in coastal ecosystems and economies.

Reduce stressors to species such as overexploitation and habitat loss.

Update zoning, flood maps, open space ordinances.

Reassess stormwater discharge guidelines.

Potential responses

Gather seminal plans and synthesize key results and recommendations. Contact lead organizations and document plan development and implementation lessons-learned. Inquire how organizations can improve collaboration and communications.

Develop shared communications tools, resources and messages; provide communications training as needed to participating organizations.

Engage academic and research institutions, user groups and managers in a concerted effort to secure resources to address priority science gaps.

Choose one or more geographic regions and over 2-3 years demonstrate how a more integrated investment strategy can produce greater environmental results. (e.g., sewage upgrades, remove abandoned gear, install boat pump-outs, address non-point sources that close shellfish flats, etc.)

Identify priority audiences and learn of effective messaging.  Provide educational and outreach opportunities to increase public and decision-maker understanding of coastal resources and the need to conserve and/or restore them.

As funding levels for restoration and conservation increase, appropriate staffing levels for planning, implementation, oversight, and evaluation need to be determined and put in place.