Vol. 1, No. 4
Headline Back Issues Fall 1997
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BAC brainstorms Gulf involvement South Portland, Maine -- Water quality, tourism, energy projects, and integrating the participation of municipalities into discussions of marine resource management were among the issues business leaders from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts discussed at a Gulf of Maine Council Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting here September 17. BAC held a year-long series of meetings with business leaders in the US and Canada to discuss how business and industry can work with the Council to address issues affecting the Gulf. Numerous businesses participate in stewardship projects on the local level, and the Council is seeking their involvement in planning and policy issues as well. "The only way we can have any hope of protecting the Gulf is to have a real partnership with the business community," said Council Secretariat Trudy Coxe, also Secretary of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. To facilitate such involvement, the Council asked BAC members to attend its forum on proposed natural gas pipeline projects with Gulf of Maine routes, and a subsequent reception at the Council's semi-annual meeting in Boston December 11-12. For more information on participating in BAC, E-mail Cal Thomas at cmthomas@world.std.com or call him at (617) 728-0542. GOMC grants help eleven nonprofits Boston, Massachusetts -- The Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment has awarded $50,000 in grants to 11 nonprofit organizations working to protect and enhance the vitality of the Gulf of Maine. "This year's grant recipients have taken the personal initiative to protect a magnificent environmental resource," said Trudy Coxe, Council Secretariat and Secretary of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs in Massachusetts. "These are the kind of projects that should be receiving money. This should encourage other people with innovative ideas to step forward for next year's grants." The diverse projects cover all five Gulf of Maine jurisdictions, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Canadian grant recipients include the Fundy North Fisherman Association in New Brunswick, which will organize a conference on scallop enhancement; the Nova Scotia Organic Growers Association, which will evaluate the use of catch crops to reduce nutrient runoff (see page 5); and the St. Croix Estuary Project, which will develop signs on significant habitats in northern Passamaquoddy Bay. In the US, grants were awarded to the National Audubon Society in Maine and the Audubon Society in New Hampshire to conduct projects to restore tern and seabird nesting habitat. Coastal Enterprises Inc. in Maine will develop informational radio pieces focusing on efforts to restore groundfish resources. Beals Island Shellfish Hatchery in Maine will promote clam farming that combines habitat restoration principles with increasing clam harvests. The University of Maine Cooperative Extension will develop marine habitat and ecology materials for teachers. Granite State Designers in New Hampshire will develop free public education seminars on septic system problems as a means of preventing contamination of shellfish habitat. The Boston Harbor Association will produce a bilingual citizen's guide to improving natural resources in Boston Harbor. The Coalition for Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts will address marine debris. UN pushing marine pollution reduction Danvers, Massachusetts -- Representatives of US and Canadian public, private, research, community, and tribal organizations met here in October to finalize the formation of the Global Program of Action Coalition (GPAC) for the Gulf of Maine. The coalition is intended to advance the implementation of the United Nations Global Program of Action to combat marine pollution, and is one of two pilot projects supported through the UN's Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The Global Plan of Action (GPA) is a guide for national and regional authorities for controlling marine pollution caused by activities taking place on land. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), human activities on land cause approximately 80 percent of all marine pollution. More than 100 nations including Canada, the US, and Mexico adopted the GPA at a 1995 Washington, DC conference sponsored by UNEP in response to a recommendation made at the 1992 Earth Day Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Attendees at the Danvers meeting developed the GPAC 1998 action plan, a five-stage program that will address the management of both priority pollutants and critical marine and coastal habitats in the Gulf of Maine region. Integral to the new plan are two workshops, the first of which will take place in St. John, New Brunswick in April. The coalition will be co-chaired by Joseph Arbour of Environment Canada and Katie Ries of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. |
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Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine