Boaters cruise on a river in Port St. Lucie, Florida on Thursday, March 11, 2021. (Photo by Joe Kovacs)
[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Science.]
By Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D., U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Real Clear Science
With 95,471 miles of U.S. shoreline, and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that is among the largest in the world, the strength of the U.S. economy is reliant on the understanding, health, and sustainable use of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources. U.S. coastal and Great Lakes economies provide valuable goods and services to the nation and contribute to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) through diverse and dynamic activities such as tourism and recreation, national defense, offshore mineral extraction, shipping and transportation, commercial fishing and aquaculture, ship-building, offshore energy research and education.
Over the last two decades, the American marine - or Blue - Economy has seen tremendous growth. From 2014 to 2015, Blue Economy sectors expanded by 5.7% - more than twice that of the U.S. economy as a whole. From 2017 - 2018, the Blue Economy increased by 7.5%, again eclipsing national economic growth averaged at 6.1%. The economic activity from America’s seaports alone grew from 2014-2018 by 17% to $5.4 trillion, comprising nearly 26% of the nation’s $20.5 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). In 2018, the U.S. Blue Economy, including goods and services, contributed approximately $373 billion to the nation’s GDP, and supported 2.3 million jobs. Such activities contribute to the global marine economy, which is expected to double in value to $3 trillion over the next decade, COVID-19 notwithstanding.
The populations of coastal communities are similarly large in scale. While coastal areas account for less than 10% of the total land in the contiguous U.S., an estimated 127 million people, or 40% of the U.S. population, live in coastal counties5. If these coastal counties were an individual country, they would rank third in the world in GDP, surpassed only by the U.S. and China. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, American seaports are adding coastal infrastructure, including terminals and piers. Demand for maritime commerce is expected to double by 2025 and triple by 2030.
Altogether, the U.S. is an ocean nation, and as the Biden Administration has included economic recovery as a top priority, growing the American Blue Economy will be an essential element. The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), who is leading the effort, should use this opportunity to elevate the role of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the Department. The agency recently completed a NOAA Blue Economy Strategic Plan for 2021-2025, which provides a roadmap for applying NOAA’s ocean science and technology (S&T) to expand the economic contributions of our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes. Fully supporting the actions in this plan will provide the Secretary of Commerce the opportunity to not only accelerate an economic turnaround, but also continue American leadership in ocean S&T.
Advancing the American Blue Economy
As the nation’s leading marine science agency, NOAA provides data, tools, and services that support coastal economies and positively impact every American life, every day. In keeping with its core mission of science, service, and stewardship to the nation, NOAA expands and strengthens the American Blue Economy by leading agency-wide initiatives in the following sectors:
Marine Transportation
Ocean Exploration
Seafood Competitiveness
Tourism & Recreation
Coastal Resilience
The NOAA Blue Economy Strategic Plan for 2021-2025 directs actions in these sectors across the agency that are either planned or already in progress. Areas of focus include public-private partnerships, finance and business development, education, S&T transitions and applications, workforce development, policy and legislation, socioeconomic evaluations, and international engagement. Through these actions, NOAA aims to strengthen and improve NOAA data, services, and technological resources that contribute to the American Blue Economy, support the growth of American business and entrepreneurship, and identify and support the growth of other sectors of the Blue Economy that will help to accelerate the nation's economic recovery.
Marine Transportation
NOAA products and services drive the Marine Transportation sector, which produced $59 billion Gross Output in 2018, accounting for 10% of the total U.S. marine economy. The NOAA PORTS (Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System) partnership program, for instance, provides real time information to mariners to improve the efficiency of U.S. ports and harbors, promote navigation safety, and enhance the protection of coastal marine resources. PORTS, which currently serves about one-third of the 175 major seaports in the U.S., is upgrading and expanding coverage, with five recent upgrades (Houston, Mobile Bay, Corpus Christi, NY/NJ, Cape Cod) and three new systems (Portsmouth, Valdez, King’s Bay) in 2020.
NOAA distributes Precision Marine Navigation data, such as surface current forecasts, marine weather hazards, and high-resolution bathymetry, to help mariners make better decisions, and refines the National Spatial Reference System to improve positioning accuracy. The agency is working to develop products that enhance the safety of marine transportation and commercial shipping by providing critical environmental information, such as the location of icebergs, wind patterns, and operational marine weather forecasts. The Economics National Ocean Watch dataset (ENOW) provides economic time series data on the marine transportation sector for use by public audiences and stakeholders. These are a few of many ongoing efforts to optimize the safety and utility of the nation’s marine highway infrastructure, improve marine navigation, and characterize marine commerce for industry partners.
Ocean Exploration
The U.S. EEZ covers 3.4 million square nautical miles of ocean, and is larger than the land area of all fifty states combined, yet only 40% of it is mapped. In response to this gap in our understanding of the U.S. EEZ, NOAA is developed the 2020 National Strategy for Mapping, Exploring, and Characterizing the US EEZ and its associated 2021 Implementation Plan (210107-FINAL-NOMEC-Implementation-Plan-Clean.pdf (archives.gov)). Working with partners, NOAA’s goal is to map and characterize the U.S. EEZ by 2030. Subsequent interagency collaborations include the 2020 Alaska Coastal Mapping Strategy, and the Implementation Plan to Improve the Permitting Process for Mapping, Characterizing and Exploring the U.S. EEZ.
Ongoing efforts include coordinating and executing ocean mapping campaigns with public and private sector partners and meeting established standards and protocols. Through a series of public-private partnerships, such as those between NOAA and Caladan Oceanic, Vulcan, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, The Ocean Foundation, REV Ocean, OceanX, Ocean Infinity, Viking, the U.S. Navy, and the Scripps Oceanographic Institute, NOAA has continued to engage in both mapping and exploration using marine robotics, collecting data that provides insight into sustainable energy development, new marine species, fisheries, minerals, and pharmaceutical development, as well as ocean/weather forecasts, conservation, and ocean health.
In addition to coordinating and executing mapping expeditions, and performing ocean exploration and characterization operations, the agency is dedicated to archiving, inventorying, and making accessible expedition data to the public in a timely manner. Furthermore, the agency is developing data collection and quality standards for ocean exploration and characterization to produce robust datasets that can be used for multiple objectives across sectors. Applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and uncrewed systems (UxS), and the use of innovative methods like telepresence to support this area are highlighted in six NOAA S&T Focus Area Implementation Plans. Such methods have been critical to continuing ocean operations in accordance with Centers for Disease Control Guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic limiting ship capacity/crew size.
Lastly, NOAA supports efforts to facilitate permitting for ocean mapping and exploration projects. NOAA offices are increasing the clarity and consistency of federal compliance processes, promoting efficiency through systematic Federal approaches, and integrating new and emerging science and technology in permitting and authorization processes.
Seafood Competitiveness
NOAA is advancing our nation’s fisheries. In 2017, commercial and recreational fishing industries combined generated $244 billion in annual sales, contributing $111 billion to the gross domestic product and supporting 1.74 million jobs (all increasing from the previous year). NOAA plays a leading role in the implementation of the 2020 Executive Order on Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth. Key lines of effort include reducing barriers to U.S. fisherman, implementing Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs), streamlining aquaculture permitting, and combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
NOAA offices are engaged in a variety of specific activities to promote U.S. seafood competitiveness and economic growth. NOAA Fisheries reflects the gold standard in sustainable fisheries management, with 47 rebuilt stocks since 2000. Of 321 stocks with known overfishing status in 2019, 93% are not subject to overfishing. 81% of those with known overfished status are not overfished. NOAA is supporting efforts that streamline fisheries regulation underpinned by the best available science to provide more access for fishermen without depleting stocks, leverage citizen science data and networks to inform decision-making and advocacy, and advance ecosystem-based fisheries management through widespread adoption of UxS, ‘Omics, cloud computing, big data and citizen science in fisheries surveys. In 2020, NOAA Fisheries announced the selection of southern California and the Gulf of Mexico as the first regions for focused study to identify AOAs. Through spatial analyses, modeling, and stakeholder engagement, the agency hopes to determine the potential suitability of these areas for commercial aquaculture to expand domestic production and economic opportunities for coastal communities.
IUU Fishing is an internationally recognized problem that has far-reaching consequences for national security and marine fisheries. This issue is of particular concern in the Indo-Pacific region, and significantly undermines the economies of our Pacific Island Partners. Chinese vessels regularly make incursions into the EEZs of other nations, routinely fishing without permission and overfishing licensing agreements. In contrast, NOAA is working with interagency and international partners and developing new technologies to ensure that sustainable and legal fishing practices counter this activity.
Tourism and Recreation
The largest sector in the U.S. Blue Economy is tourism and recreation (coastal and offshore), which produced $227 billion Gross Output in 2018. Furthermore, this sector accounted for 38.3% ($143 billion) of the $373 billion in value added to the ocean economy in 2018, and demonstrated the largest amount of sales growth over the previous year ($14 billion). NOAA supports the outdoor recreation economy, which was recently highlighted in the Great American Outdoors Act. NOAA has contributed to the tourism & recreation sector in sustainable, and powerful ways, such as the designation and expansion of National Marine Sanctuaries. NOAA designated the new Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary in 2019, and is working to finalize two shipwreck sanctuaries in Wisconsin and Lake Ontario. Additionally, the agency is expanded the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in 2021. Our National Marine Sanctuaries generate $8 billion annually in local coastal economies annually from activities including commercial fishing, research, recreation/tourism activities.
NOAA personnel are actively engaged in efforts to increase options and access for sustainable, safe tourism & recreation activities, improve ocean health, and both understand and communicate the economic value of this sector to the public. From improving weather forecasts, conserving coral reefs, removing marine debris, restoring habitats, and protecting endangered species, to preparing the nation to respond to oil spills, NOAA data and services inform diverse areas within this sector.
The NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, for instance, works to assess, restore, and protect U.S. reef systems, which provide essential services for all seven U.S. coral reef jurisdictions that have an estimated total economic value of $3.4 billion per year. NOAA is executing the 2018 NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program Strategic Plan, producing reef status reports to monitor reef health, trends, and human impacts, leading restoration planning, and developing partnerships to restore Florida’s Coral Reef. The agency will also be implementing the 2020 NOAA Strategy to Respond to and Prevent the Spread of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease, which supports timely, efficient, and effective action in collaboration with state, federal, and private partners to match agency capacity with critical research and response needs, slow the outbreak of this devastating disease across Florida and Caribbean Coral reefs, and identify opportunities to prevent and prepare for the possible spread of the disease to the Pacific region. Protecting America’s coral reefs not only benefits the sustainable tourism and recreation sector, but supports fisheries and builds coastal resilience through powerful shoreline protection preventing an estimated $94 million in flood damages every year.
Marine Debris is another critical area where NOAA data, services, and tools impact the tourism and recreation sector. NOAA is working with federal partners, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Department of State, to identify actions to address marine debris and its impacts on ocean health following the 2020 U.S. Federal Strategy for Addressing the Global Challenge of Marine Litter. The NOAA Marine Debris Program is authorized by Congress to continue NOAA’s leadership in marine debris removal and prevention through the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act.
Coastal Resilience
In 2020, the U.S. experienced 22 weather and climate disasters, with damages exceeding $1 billion each and totaling approximately $95 billion for all 22 events. The active 2020 Atlantic hurricane season produced an unprecedented 30 named storms, including 7 billion-dollar tropical cyclones that resulted in a total of $42 billion in damages to coastal communities.
NOAA is providing critical data to monitor and predict coastal hazards across the nation, and to understand how global and regional changes are affecting coastal communities. NOAA is engaged in a wide range of activities shaping coastal resilience, such as generating hurricane and storm surge predictions, developing climate assessments, and providing data to coastal managers through programs such as NOAA’s Digital Coast. NOAA is actively expanding data-comparison tools and services that may inform the public about coastal changes, direct resilience planning to protect jobs, identify vulnerable economic sectors, and describe economic impacts of hazards.
Partnerships are invaluable in this effort. NOAA works with public and federal partners to build resilience to coastal hazards through the National Coastal Resilience Fund - a national program that invests in conservation projects that increase and strengthen natural infrastructure to protect coastal communities from the impacts of storms and other naturally-occurring events while creating or expanding habitats for fish and wildlife. NOAA personnel engage in habitat restoration projects across the nation, from marshes in Louisiana and oyster beds in the Chesapeake, to coral reefs in Puerto Rico, and are looking to identify/expand new opportunities for increasing coastal resilience. They also work to develop tools and training to prepare for coastal disasters, and to work with partners to respond to events like marine oil spills through the Disaster Preparedness Program. This initiative is designed to strengthen existing operational capabilities to ensure the agency and its partners can effectively plan for and respond to hazards, and to accelerate the recovery of commerce, communities, and natural resources. By upgrading our global weather forecast model and supercomputing capacity in 2019, NOAA has made remarkable improvements in weather forecasting that better prepare the nation to respond to coastal disasters.
The Opportunity
Success of the NOAA Blue Economy Strategic Plan will mean success for America’s post-pandemic economic recovery. The Blue Economy component of this recovery is increasingly dependent upon ocean science, technology, and data. By expanding investment in these areas for NOAA, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo can generate tremendous returns on investment and sustain American leadership in ocean S&T that NOAA spearheaded over the past 4 years.
Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D. is a Former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Deputy NOAA Administrator.
[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Science.]
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