Leslie available at AAAS to reflect on Northeast Ocean Plan

Heather Leslie, director of the University of Maine Darling Marine Center, is available to talk about the significance of the Northeast Ocean Plan.

“The Northeast Ocean Plan is one of the first-in-the-nation efforts to translate the concept of ecosystem-based management for the oceans into reality, at the regional level,” Leslie says.

“I’m really proud of what we in New England have accomplished, and the ways that scientists in particular have contributed.”

The plan is a blueprint prepared by tribal, state, regional and federal entities to protect and manage New England’s marine environment.

It builds on more than a decade of cooperation among organizations from the local to the regional scale. Priorities include healthy ocean and coastal ecosystems, effective decision-making and compatibility among past, current and future ocean uses.

The plan seeks to characterize the vulnerability of marine resources to specific stressors, as well as to changing environmental conditions, particularly resulting from climate change, and characterize resulting impacts on existing resources and uses.

On Feb. 18, Leslie, a faculty member in UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences, will discuss how science and scientists can contribute to the next stages of marine science and stewardship at the 2017 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston.

She will present an AAAS symposium titled “The Effectiveness of Ecosystem Services Science in Decision-Making,” at the Hynes Convention Center.

For more on Leslie’s research and engagement related to New England and the world’s oceans, visit umaine.edu/leslie-lab/