Ocean hearings start tomorrow

By Times Staff

September 21, 2008 10:23 pm

—

For the second time in three weeks, Gloucester will serve as a launching pad for a series of state "listening sessions" to be held across Massachusetts.

Following the directives of the federal Oceans Act of 2008, the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs is undertaking a "first-in-the-nation" effort, according to EEA officials, with an eye toward developing a comprehensive plan for managing development in the state's ocean waters. After holding an opening session last Thursday in Boston, the EEA is now taking its hearings on the road, with the first to be held Tuesday night at 7 in the Kyrouz Auditorium at City Hall.

The Gloucester meeting, to be held before EEA Assistant Ocean and Coastal Management Secretary Deerin Babb-Brott and members of the Massachusetts Ocean Advisory Commission, is the first of a back-to-back-to-back North Shore series. There will also be listening sessions before the same panel Wednesday at 7 in the Salem City Hall Annex, and Thursday at 7 at Salisbury Town Hall.

The state has scheduled 18 listening sessions in all, from sites on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard to Pittsfield, which sits some 130 miles from the coast.

"The ocean plan development process is just beginning, and the first step is to go out to the public and hear from Commonwealth citizens on their goals for the ocean plan," Babb-Brott said in a prepared statement. The listening sessions are set to carry through mid-October, with Springfield as the last stop.

For Gloucester residents and others around Cape Ann, the state listening sessions and the steps toward a coastal and ocean management plan come as the fishing industry faces new federal constraints as early as next spring — and as city officials take steps toward updating Gloucester's plans for harbor development.

It also comes as the federal government firms up a management plan for the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, the ocean equivalent of a national park.

Stellwagen is home to one of the world's largest populations of whales and countless other marine species — and is the primary visiting area for whale-watch trips out of Gloucester and other ports as far south as Provincetown. But it is also a rich source for the fishing industry, and is criss-crossed by major shipping lanes. While the preliminary management plan drew support from environmentalists, fishing advocates and other critics have cited the Stellwagen plan as "advocacy masquerading as science."

The use of Gloucester as the first site of the traveling state ocean plan hearings will also come three weeks after another series of state hearings kicked off its tour in the city as well. On Sept. 3, a state panel looking into the "hidden wounds of war" and the accessibility of mental health service for veterans and returning military personnel, also held its opener in Gloucester at the Veterans' Center.