![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/WVCSGQ6EE5HERP5OS4M3UEAOXM.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
An undated photo of the bay at Port Orford, south coast of Oregon. The state regulates ocean uses along the full length of the coastline from the shore to 3 nautical miles offshore. <\/p>\n
Stephani Gordon \/ Stephani Gordon, OPB<\/p>\n
Oregon is taking a look at the three-nautical-mile-wide ribbon of ocean that runs along the length of the coast. <\/p>\n
This offshore ribbon is managed under Oregon\u2019s Territorial Sea Plan<\/a> and covers issues as varied as undersea cables, fishing and renewable energies. But the plan is more than 30 years old and doesn\u2019t consider emerging issues like climate change and ocean acidification.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s high time to take a look at the foundational chapters of the Territorial Sea Plan and update them,\u201d said Joe Liebezeit, the chair of the Ocean Policy Advisory Council.<\/p>\n So the Oregon Department of State Lands<\/a> has asked the Ocean Policy Advisory Council<\/a> to review the sea plan in an effort to strengthen protections for Oregon\u2019s marine ecosystem and ensure Oregonians get fair compensation for the use of the seafloor.<\/p>\n From the \u2018Beach Bill\u2019 to a bigger plan<\/p>\n Oregon\u2019s coastal management system is relatively recent. The first protections stretch back to 1967 and the \u201cBeach Bill,\u201d when lawmakers decided the public owns the shore between low and high tide.<\/p>\n It was only in 1994 that concern about offshore drilling and foreign fishing prompted the state to develop the Territorial Sea Plan.<\/p>\n Duncan Berry at the Cascade Head UNESCO Biosphere site, where he is co-director, seen on July 18, 2026. Berry is also vice chair of the Ocean Policy Advisory Council.\n<\/p>\n Kristian \/ OPB<\/p>\n Duncan Berry, the vice chair of the Ocean Policy Advisory Council, said Oregon has proved relatively good at protecting land over the years, but the ocean seems like an afterthought.<\/p>\n \u201cI call it \u2018terrestrially chauvinistic,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really think about the places we walk and visit and live, and very few of us go to the ocean for other than just occasional recreational purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n The plan has five basic parts: <\/p>\n rocky habitat management, because that\u2019s where a lot of the fish live; seafloor uses, like pipelines and communication cables; renewable energies, for example wind and wave farms; resource decisions, like fishing and tribal consultation; and overall ocean management, like legal authority.<\/p>\n But the sea plan was put together in 1994, and Lieberzeit said a lot of things have changed since then. <\/p>\n \u201cWe live in a time now of climate change, which was not taken into account when the Territorial Sea Plan was originally written,\u201d Liebezeit said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know things about ocean acidification, hypoxia, all these kinds of impacts from a warming ocean that we\u2019re really concerned about.\u201d <\/p>\n The advisory council will start by reviewing the first two parts of the Territorial Sea Plan \u2014 ocean management and resource use decisions. The council is composed of people who work with the ocean on a regular basis, like commercial fishing groups, tribal members and offshore wind interests.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to take the input from 100-some-odd community members, our own OPAC members, and meeting with each of the agencies that historically have worked with OPAC,\u201d Berry said.<\/p>\n Liebezeit and Berry are trying to set things up so discussions don\u2019t end up simply as battles between environmentalists and businesses. Instead, Liebezeit said, they see the review as a visioning moment.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s more like: \u2018Hey, let\u2019s get everybody together, all the different community partners and figure out what we envision is important for the ocean for the next five to 10 years,\u2019\u201d said Liebezeit.<\/p>\n Delving into the details<\/p>\n But while visioning is an important part of any plan, inevitably people have to delve into details and things get difficult.<\/p>\n For example, offshore wind. In 2024, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management<\/a> tried to lease two large wind farms off Coos Bay and Brookings. Fishing and other interests came out against the idea.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were all opposed to the speed at which things were moving,\u201d said Heather Mann, the executive director of the Midwater Trawler\u2019s Cooperative<\/a> in Newport. <\/p>\n In the end, the wind energy auction was canceled.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that we were necessarily opposed to offshore wind,\u201d said Mann. \u201cIt\u2019s just that there were so many questions.\u201d<\/p>\n Questions like: How might a wind farm affect fishing? Or whale migration? Mann wonders whether it is even possible to anchor a 1,000-foot-tall floating wind turbine in such deep waters.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know we can\u2019t create a weather buoy that doesn\u2019t break off. So having those machines out there, there was really no understanding of what could potentially happen,\u201d Mann said. <\/p>\n Viewpoint of Sunset Beach, Ore., on Dec. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n Monica Samayoa \/ OPB<\/p>\n![\"Duncan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/H3V3S23TBRGUNA74MX7QSJKHLU.JPG\")
<\/p>\n![\"Viewpoint](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4RBW42KAKVGKVBNACV6RQ64YHI.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/UCH7YF2LEZHOXGVWSLLXGZYUCU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n