The Oregon Nearshore Research Inventory project: The importance of science and the scientific community as stakeholders in marine spatial planning

Abstract

The purpose of Oregon’s Nearshore Research Inventory (NRI) project was to understand the geographic use of ocean space by the marine science community in order to include the information in Oregon’s marine spatial planning (MSP) process. Spatial data and attributes about the geographic use of Oregon’s ocean and coast by marine scientists were inventoried and mapped; including information about the geographic distribution of research, research timelines, and the people and institutions that conduct scientific research. The results of the NRI interviews show that the scientific community conducts research in twenty percent of the nearshore grid cells used in the Oregon’s Territorial Sea amendment process. These results show that ocean space is used by the scientific community, and therefore, should be recognized as a use of ocean space in the MSP process.As new uses, such as wave energy extraction, are proposed along coastlines and in the ocean, MSP can be used as a tool to reduce conflict and find compatible uses of ocean and coastal space. A major benefit of the scientific community’s use of ocean and coastal space is that it results in data that can be used to inform ecosystem-based management decisions. Interruptions in long-term scientific research and monitoring as a result of ocean space use conflicts could limit the availability of information for use in future management decisions. While considering tradeoffs in the MSP process, decision makers need to recognize and account for the value of scientific space as a use of the ocean.