Potential Applications
EDUCATION
Most readily, MINOE can be useful for teaching marine policy courses. Professors could have students choose single issues, for instance, and compare the regulations around the topic within and across jurisdictions and scales of management. For courses oriented around ecosystem-based management, students could examine whether key relationships between ecosystem components are explicitly addressed in statutes and regulations. In this way it can provide an educational tool for students to explore and navigate through the fragmented nature of ocean management.
Powerpoint introducing the MINOE program
Class handout about the program with (screen shots)
SCIENCE & POLICY RESEARCH
In its current form, the compilation can provide data to answer a number of ocean and coastal governance questions such as identification of gaps and overlaps that have arisen from sector-based management. In addition, if coupled with ecological data, the law and regulations compilation could also assist in the examination of the many types of connections and feedbacks between governance and ecological systems:
- To identify existing laws and regulations that support or can be strengthened to support ecosystem-based management practices
- To explore different approaches to managing the same resource across jurisdictions
- To find overlapping jurisdictions among government agencies
REGULAR UPDATES
Updated regularly, a compilation of ocean laws and regulations can serve as a tool to provide direct access for resource users and other stakeholders of all the laws and regulations that exist to address a topic of interest. We are currently working on automating this process of collecting and "cleaning" laws.