Making waves: Obama administration's National Ocean Policy spawns apprehension in Alaska.

• Author: Loy, Wesley
• Position: FISHERIES

Alaska is the only state that borders two oceans, the Pacific and the Arctic.

It's understandable, then, that Alaskans are keenly interested in an emerging Obama administration initiative known as the National Ocean Policy.

While the policy has supporters, it also has generated a tide of skepticism from elected officials as well as industry players who fear it could mean new layers of bureaucracy as well as "zoning" of the oceans.

Administration officials insist the policy is meant to better coordinate the many federal agencies and laws having some say over the seas. It will be good for business, they say.

On April 16, the administration rolled out the final implementation plan for the National Ocean Policy. The plan was developed over two years, with extensive input from national, regional, and local stakeholders, officials say.

To some degree, it appears the administration heeded concerns Alaskans raised.

U.S. Senator Mark Begich, D-AK, had big problems with an earlier draft of the plan. The final version, he says, is shorter and more focused, and specifies that regional marine planning bodies called for under the plan will be inclusive but voluntary.

That means Alaska or other states can opt out if they want, says Begich, who chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"We asked the Obama administration to go back to the drawing board to revise and simplify their top-down approach," Begich says. "I appreciate the administration's willingness to listen to my concerns and urge Alaskans to look closely at this revised plan to see if it works for them. If not, they now have options."

Other members of Congress, however, remain wary of the policy. The critics include U.S. Representative Doc Hastings, R-WA, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

"Over the past two years, the Obama Administration has repeatedly limited public transparency and frustrated attempts to obtain information about the cost, legal authority, activities, and staffing involved with developing and implementing regional ocean zoning plans and other parts of the National Ocean Policy," Hastings wrote in an April 19 letter to administration officials. "The Administration's final plan for implementing the National Ocean Policy ... continues this pattern of secrecy and reaffirms the Administration's sweeping, unilateral expansion of federal bureaucracy through increased regulation of economic and...