What is ocean zoning?
Who has done or is currently using ocean zoning? Why do government officials rarely use the term, opting instead to speak more ambiguously of spatial management? Finally, does ocean zoning offer the world a radical new approach to making our use of the seas more sustainable What is Ocean Zoning? Ocean zoning is a planning tool that comes straight out of the land use planning methodologies developed in the 1970s and used at the municipal, county, state, regional, and national levels. As on land, it allows a strategic allocation of uses based on a determination of an area’s suitability for those uses, and reduction of user conflicts by separating incompatible activities. There are generally two components to an ocean zoning plan: 1) a map that depicts the zones and 2) a set of regulations or standards applicable to each type of zone created.1 While the concept has been slow to gain public acceptance, it is increasingly popular with marine resource managers and conservationists2. The term
