Vol. 3, No. 4 Contents
Headline Back Issues
Fall 1999
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GOM Council celebrates decade of working in Gulf Stewardship (cont'd)In December 1989 in Portland, Maine, the governors and premiers of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia signed an agreement creating the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment (GOMC). The agreement signified their belief that the two provinces and three states, because of their economic and cultural ties to the Gulf, could best serve as its stewards. Since the 1989 signing, the Council has focused its efforts on promoting sustainable development of marine and coastal resources, raising public awareness about the Gulf of Maine, and cultivating support for stewardship at the local level. Initially comprising two government representatives from each state and province, the Council opened its meetings to representatives from federal agencies in 1992. The same year it expanded its membership to include private sector representatives from each jurisdiction. "The private sector members have a very important role to play," according to Ed McLean, private sector Council member from New Brunswick and President of Connor's Bros. Ltd, a seafood company in Black's Harbour. "It is our responsibility to see that provincial programs are practical and to comment on their effect on the business sector." Another important group with whom the Council exchanges information is the scientific research community. Under an agreement with the Council, the Regional Association for Research on the Gulf of Maine (RARGOM), an association of the marine scientific community, provides scientific and technical advice. The Council has provided some funding to RARGOM for workshops on research and management priorities for the Gulf, and two Council Working Group members are participating in the steering committee for a RARGOM workshop on environmental monitoring scheduled for next spring. According to RARGOM Executive Director Genie Braasch, these collaborations show that "the resource management community and the research community are working together to address some of these issues of mutual concern." Additionally, the Council works with non-governmental advocacy and environmental organizations, educators, concerned citizens, and local and municipal governments, many of which participate on the Council's five committees. A representative of the Coastal Network of the Gulf of Maine, a network of citizen environmental quality monitoring groups, attends the Council's quarterly Working Group meetings. The non-government organization (NGO) community has stated that it hopes to play a broader role in the Council's activities, encouraging the pooling of talents and resources, and multiplying the benefits to the Gulf region. In response, the Council is investigating ways to incorporate more participation by grassroots organizations. GOMC is also exploring ways to reach out to First Nations and Tribal governments. Habitat the priority
The five program goals that the plan outlines are: protecting and restoring regionally significant coastal habitat; protecting and restoring shellfish habitat; protecting and restoring fishery habitats and resources; reducing toxic contaminants in marine habitats; and, reducing marine debris. Directed by the Council's Working Group, five committees bring together diverse representation from around the Gulf to address the Council's programming goals. The Contaminants Monitoring Committee, Outreach Committee, Information Management Committee, Marine Debris Committee, and Aquaculture Committee administer the Council's core in-house projects, collaborating with one another as needed.
Knowing the level and distribution of certain contaminants in the Gulf's blue mussels helps scientists, government agencies, businesses, and environmental stewardship groups to develop their regional environmental plans and programs. Along with providing baseline data, the information can also help researchers determine if and how water quality in a particular area has been affected by a specific occurrence such as an oil spill. "We are concerned not only about human health, but also phytoplankton, marine animals," and other organisms, noted John Sowles, Marine Program Director for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and past Co-chair of the GOMC Contaminants Monitoring Committee. Awareness promotes actionThe Council's emphasis on increasing public awareness about the Gulf of Maine has led the Outreach Committee to produce the Gulf of Maine Times, as well as brochures, videos, maps, and other informational materials. These are intended to cultivate stewardship by helping people who live and work in the Gulf of Maine to understand how the ecosystem works and why it is valuable, and by enabling them to make informed, responsible decisions about actions that could affect it. The Gulf of Maine Times, a free newspaper that began publication in March 1997, informs readers about numerous and diverse issues affecting the Gulf ecosystem. The newspaper is also available on the Council's other main vehicle for communication, its web site, gulfofmaine.org. "For me, the essence of the Gulf of Maine Council is communication. Neighbors talking to neighbors. Colleagues talking to colleagues," said Council member Jeff Taylor, Director of the New Hampshire Office of State Planning. "The Gulf of Maine Times fills a critical function in our communication strategy by helping to facilitate that communication electronically and in the printed format."
"One of the primary roles of the Council is to help people working on habitat issues in the region to learn from each other. This searchable directory of past and ongoing habitat research, management, and policy efforts helps to connect people in a really easy way," said David Keeley, a member of the Council's Working Group and State Planner at the Maine State Planning Office. The web site includes a Coastal Wetland Restoration Database, providing information on approximately 100 tidal marsh restoration projects, more than 100 freshwater impoundments in Canada, and several innovative projects aimed at restoring sea grass and tidal flats. The database also includes information on more than 400 potentially restorable tidal marshes, representing more than 2,000 acres/809 hectares. Other resources available on the web site include information on the Gulf of Maine Watershed, a searchable library of publications containing information on the Gulf of Maine, a database of contacts throughout the Gulf region, a calendar of events, a discussion forum, information on the Council's implementation grants, nomination forms for its recognition awards, and links to other relevant sites. For the last year, the Council has been involved in an effort to make data relating to the Gulf of Maine accessible to the many different people who need it - from university researchers to environmental groups, students, fishermen, and others. The Council's Data Information Management Committee works closely with numerous organizations in the region to address Gulfwide information needs and methods of distributing that information under an effort called the Gulf of Maine Information Exchange (GOMINFOEX). For the last two years, GOMC has held a forum in conjunction with each of its semi-annual Council meetings as a means of fostering face-to-face exchanges of information. Topics have included natural gas pipelines (December 97), collisions between ships and endangered North Atlantic right whales (June 98), the Georges Bank Drilling Moratorium (November 98), and ways to improve communication among Gulf of Maine organizations (June 99). Additionally, the Council has co-sponsored numerous conferences and workshops on such topics as salt marsh monitoring and the impact of fishing gear on the sea floor. The Council's committees also address ongoing and developing issues. The Marine Debris Committee promotes efforts to deal with the problem of marine debris - rubbish and waste in the marine and coastal environments - and develops public awareness campaigns about the environmental problems caused to wildlife and ecosystems by refuse dumped overboard or left along coastlines. The committee works with government and non-government organizations to involve the public in shoreline improvement and cleanup projects, and to track the types and amounts of debris collected during those cleanups. The Council's Aquaculture committee, established last summer to promote understanding of aquaculture and address its interactions with the Gulf of Maine environment, recently published a report describing existing aquaculture activity in the region and identifying issues of regional interest relating to this growing industry. Sowing seed moneyRecognizing that much of the ongoing stewardship work on behalf of the Gulf of Maine is being undertaken by countless grassroots environmental organizations, the Council helps to foster locally-based environmental stewardship projects by providing seed money to organizations that share many of its goals, but work independently of the Council. Recipients of the Council's implementation grants are extremely diverse and are spread throughout the Gulf region. Some of their efforts have included restoring seabird nesting habitat; developing signs to encourage beach goers and mariners to dispose of trash properly; creating a bilingual citizens guide to improving Boston Harbor's natural resources; and developing numerous workshops, educational materials, and other resources. With $117,000 awarded in its latest round of implementation grants in December, the Council will have provided a total of nearly $350,000 to more than 80 organizations working on projects with goals that are aligned with the Council's own priorities. The next decadeThe Council plans to maintain its role as a facilitating organization while maintaining its own portfolio of core projects. Growth and adaptation are on the Council's agenda. The organization is discussing ways to encourage the participation of grassroots organizations and aboriginal peoples, and to collaborate on significant undertakings already under way in the Gulf. In Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, last June, the Council hosted a forum titled, "Sharing Information Among Neighbors," at which members of some of these groups discussed ways groups throughout the Gulf, including the Council, can communicate more effectively. Simultaneously, the Council sponsored a Mini Fair that provided an opportunity for exhibitors from environmental organizations, provincial, state, and federal agencies, and other groups from the US and Canada to showcase their projects. As it enters its second decade of work, the Council plans to give significant attention to facilitating youth involvement in Gulf of Maine issues. Young people are already participating in stewardship efforts around the Gulf, a fact that the Council, in conjunction with the Gulf of Maine Institute Without Walls, will highlight this summer as part of the Council's tenth anniversary celebrations. (See Council Currents story on page 11.) But according to Taylor, in addition to encouraging the next generation of stewards, the Council must continue to work with the rest of the Gulf of Maine community to cultivate a healthy legacy. "We have to leave these future leaders a resource to conserve." |
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Guided by its Gulf of Maine Action Plan, the Council concentrates on five major project areas, working to foster cross-border cooperation on ecosystem conservation efforts. The plan proposes strategies that government agencies, researchers, environmental groups, and others in the Gulf's jurisdictions might undertake. The Council wrote the plan in 1990 and revised it in 1995 to place more emphasis on habitat restoration following a 1994 conference in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, attended by more than 150 NGOs.
The Environmental Quality Monitoring committee oversees the Council's longest-standing project, Gulfwatch, its environmental monitoring program, which tests blue mussel samples for evidence of toxic contamination in the marine environment. Gulfwatch began as a pilot program in 1990 to collect information and monitor the status of water quality throughout the Gulf, which has been affected by decades of development and industrialization.
Under the direction of the Council's Information Management Committee, the Council's web site also contains its Action Plan and Supporting Actions Matrix (SAM), a comprehensive listing of the activities of the 16 government agencies and other organizations undertaking Gulf stewardship projects. The SAM organizes the information under the Council's five priority goals and provides a brief description of each activity, its status, and contact information.