Q:

What current uses will be included in the plan?

A:

A wide range of important coastal and ocean uses currently occur on Washington’s coast such as fishing, shipping, recreation, shellfish aquaculture, and military training. Understanding these current uses is critical to plan for the future.

As part of the marine spatial planning process, several projects are contributing better data and information about these current uses. The list below highlights a few examples of these projects:

• Gathering more detailed economic and spatial data on recreational uses through a recreational use survey.
• Gathering more detailed economic information on fishing, aquaculture, and coastal communities, including tribal communities through a coast-wide economic analysis.
• Compiled existing economic and contextual information on some major current uses such as non-tribal fishing, aquaculture, shipping and recreation and tourism through sector reports.
• Providing access to maps of existing data on many of the coastal and ocean uses occurring on Washington’s coast through an online data viewer.

The marine spatial plan will include chapters that provide information and maps of current uses on Washington’s coast.

For more information on current and past projects for Marine Spatial Planning, read the various Scopes of Work on the MSP Projects page or view the data through the MSP mapping application.