Marine Spatial Planning Workshop

The marine spatial planning workshops were held from August 28 to September 1, 2023, and included staff support from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The primary goal of the workshops was to begin organizing the data that stakeholders will need to address future marine spatial planning in the U.S. Caribbean. The workshops were a “kick-off” activity, and there will be future opportunities for stakeholders to be involved in the process, whether in person or remotely.

Workshop sessions covered different ocean sectors, including: national security, industries (vessel traffic, pipelines, submarine cables), fisheries (commercial and recreational), natural resources (protected species and sensitive habitats), cultural and social resources (cultural uses of the environment, archaeological sites), metocean (meteorological and oceanographic data, bathymetry), and other factors.

During each session, we presented background information and the current data inventory for the specific ocean sector. Participants were asked several prompting questions to identify data limitations and concerns, missing data and contacts to acquire said data, and data gaps. Participants also reviewed the generated list of data gaps and noted in group discussion which ones stood out as high priority.