WASHINGTON, D.C. – The following statement was issued by Elizabeth Semple, Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO), in reaction to President Trump’s Executive Order Regarding the Ocean Policy to Advance the Economic, Security, and Environmental Interests of the United States   “Since 2009, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) has worked, as a Regional Ocean Partnership, across the five states of...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) today released a first-of-its-kind report at the Mid-Atlantic scale that examines the vulnerabilities of several critical economic sectors to climate change. The report quantifies the potential impacts of threats like sea level rise, rising ocean temperatures and changes in the ocean’s chemistry to communities and businesses in 63 counties and independent cities along the...

In fall 2017, MARCO and Surfrider Foundation co-hosted a series of four workshops throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, on behalf of the Mid-A RPB’s Non-consumptive Recreation Work Group, to engage the public in a discussion of the value of important non-consumptive recreational areas and the activities they sustain. Non-consumptive recreational uses represented included surfing, beach combing, kayaking, paddleboarding, boating, and scuba diving,...

MARCO has been working with a project team consisting of the Consensus Building Institute (CBI) and other contractors, to help begin implementing the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body’s action to develop regional Healthy Ocean Ecosystem Indicators as expressed in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan Healthy Ocean Ecosystem Action 5. This Action establishes that a healthy ocean ecosystem indicator monitoring and assessment program is...

In May and November 2017, MARCO hosted two workshops, on behalf of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body’s Ecologically Rich Areas (ERAs) Work Group, to convene stakeholders and scientists to discuss ERAs.  Day-long workshops were held in the spring in Dover, DE (May 19) and in the fall in Crownsville, MD (November 2).  Workshops were conducted in support of implementation of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan action: Identify and...