The West Coast is facing rapidly changing ocean conditions with increasingly limited resources to understand and respond to them. This challenge is made more difficult by the fact that ocean science needs are siloed across plans and jurisdictions, even as partners across the coast are calling for the same data, tools, and capacity. 

 

The West Coast Ocean Science Action Agenda is designed to solve this fragmentation. The Action Agenda represents a recognition of the need for the U.S. West Coast to speak with one voice on ocean science needs for monitoring, observation, research, education, technology, and infrastructure. Solutions-oriented ocean science is vital to coastal blue economies, sustainable fisheries, natural resources, commerce, climate change adaptation, human wellbeing, and cultural and other values.

 

The Action Agenda will:

• Identify science needs shared across the West Coast;

• Articulate the research, monitoring, infrastructure, and workforce development programs required to address these science needs; 

• Highlight where investments and resources could benefit multiple agencies, Tribes, and communities; and

• Provide a strong regional basis for securing sustained investments in ocean science.

 

The Action Agenda will bring together separate expressions of need into one regional framework, combining publicly available management plans, place-based convenings, and guidance from scientific experts.

 

Implementation of this framework will require diversified, consistent, and sustainable funding for ocean science that keeps pace with changes in the ocean, enhances our ability to predict future changes, informs resilient strategies to adapt, and ultimately realizes the long-term sustainability of ocean and coastal resources – achieving this goal requires convening stakeholders to understand and amplify West Coast ocean and coastal science research needs.

 

We have a unique opportunity on the West Coast to serve as a forward-looking model: developing and implementing a unified voice for a robust, visionary framework that encompasses ocean science, research and technology, and workforce development.