The Role of the Regional Fishery Management Councils in Multi-Sector Spatial Planning: Exploring existing tools and future opportunities
Coastal and marine spatial planning (“CMSP”) is an evolving tool to help support ecosystem-based management through coordinated management and integrated ocean governance. CMSP is a process that proactively manages the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities and provides a means of managing potentially conflicting activities and accounting for cumulative impacts to ensure sustainable use of marine resources. From a fisheries management perspective, the role of the Regional Fishery Management Councils (“RFMCs” or “Councils”) in the broader CMSP framework remains an outstanding question. Understanding the nature and extent of their authority under existing laws, the types of information and data that are useful to spatial planning efforts, and what opportunities exist for them to contribute and influence the process can help federal fishery managers engage constructively in these types of coordinated planning processes.
There are numerous ways in which Councils can contribute constructively to multi-sector spatial planning and plenty of benefits that fisheries management may derive from a more coordinated marine management system. The first part of the paper considers the origins and drivers of CMSP and contemplates the potential role and value of Councils within a regional CMSP framework.
Recognizing that user-user and user-ecosystem conflicts will continue to persist in the marine environment regardless of whether a formal CMSP is developed and implemented, the second part of this paper explores existing tools and strategies to engage the fisheries sector in broader ocean planning efforts. Examining the current legal framework, we highlight incentives and avenues for Council involvement and identify ways that Councils can capitalize on their existing authority to influence and coordinate with other ocean users.
The analysis focuses on the relevant statutes and associated regulations of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act; however there are a range of other legal instruments that may provide Councils with some authority to engage in multi-sector spatial planning and decision making. The statutory and/or regulatory provisions highlighted here contain area-based mechanisms, tools for establishing activity restrictions, provisions supporting ecosystem-based management approaches, coordination and consultation requirements, and/or permitting and licensing processes in the marine environment.
With input from current fishery managers including Council members and staff as well as representatives of NOAA Fisheries, this report also explores some of the current challenges and opportunities associated with multi-sector spatial planning and outlines some potential strategies by which Councils can play a more active role in spatial planning in our oceans – with or without the development and implementation of a regional CMSP.
