Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning in North Carolina

Author(s): Linwood Pendleton and Mike Orbach

Published: November 2009

download: policy brief (.pdf) >

North Carolina’s vast marine and estuarine resources often seem without bound. Over time, however, human uses of these resources have increased and many have come into conflict with one another. Simply put, many areas in North Carolina’s coastal and offshore waters are becoming crowded, with too many users vying for the same space. Telecommunication cables preclude trawling for commercially important species; marine transportation routes are becoming clogged with commercial and recreational vessel traffic; proposed wind farms and recreational anglers might both like access to the same parts of the estuary; mining, sand, and gravel activities affect ecologically and economically important habitats.