It has been a short, and unusually quiet week here in Washington. Of course, there were plenty of fireworks in Massachusetts! Congress returned on Tuesday so things will be in full swing next week. It has been more than two years since I moved to DC to lead Ocean Leadership, and I know full well that “quiet” weeks don’t come around very often, so I took the opportunity to catch up on a number of issues and also prepare myself for a very busy first quarter of 2010.

The first few months of this New Year are full of meetings and conferences, and we are anticipating the release of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force (OPTF) final report in February. We put a lot of effort into this in 2009 and we hope that the final report reflects a strong scientific role in a National Ocean Policy for our country. The “Interim Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning”, which will be an element of the final report, is still open for public comment and our policy team is developing comments for the OPTF’s consideration.  We continue to reach out to the OPTF to provide support and guidance during their deliberations.  Another upcoming event is the release of the President’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget during the first week of February.  Ocean Leadership’s policy team will be active in the analysis of the FY2011 and will provide information to our members on the impacts as soon as we know them.

I look forward to attending the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland in late February where I will have the opportunity to see several of you! We will have booths that represent our organization and the programs that we manage.  Please stop by and catch up on the numerous activities that we have underway at Ocean Leadership. In addition the Census of Marine Life and the Ocean Observatories Initiative will both host Town Halls. I hope you will attend and get the latest information on both of these programs. I will also be giving an update on the progress of the National Ocean Policy activities at the TOS breakfast on February 23^rd and hope you will find this of interest.  March will be a busy month as well with the Ocean Leadership Annual Public Policy Forum on March 10^th on Capitol Hill followed by our Board of Trustees Meeting.

Have a nice weekend and get ready for a busy 2010.

Bob

Related Posts:

• ONW: Week of November 9, 2009 – Number 74
• From the President’s Office – 9/7/09
• The Role of Science in a National Ocean Policy
• From the President’s Office – 10/5/09
• From the President’s Office – 9/21/09