Virginia has a close relationship with the Atlantic Ocean.

The state has one of the deepest harbors on the east coast, a thriving fishing industry, the largest naval base in the world – and soon the largest offshore wind farm in the country, said Ryan Green, manager of the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program.

And the demands on the ocean are increasing, he said. That’s why the authorities want to develop a plan for its management.

“If we can do that, all of these uses, which are increasing in scale and frequency, can coexist and, crucially, coexist with critical marine habitat,” Green said.

The CZM programme, which is under the State Ministry of Environment, is now Working on Virginia’s first ocean planwhich examines how to balance competing demands for natural and commercial resources.

Green said the program had already discussed the idea years ago. In 2016, the federal government published a Ocean Action Plan for the Extended Mid-Atlantic Region.

This report from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management describes “dramatic changes” that authorities expect in the Mid-Atlantic in the coming decades, including changing ocean dynamics due to climate change and increased demand for goods transported by sea. (The Port of Virginia, for example continues to grow.)

The authors also pointed out that responsibilities for marine management are complicated by the fact that they are distributed among different authorities, laws and regulations.

“These challenges are increasing as society seeks to create new and expanded uses of the oceans while protecting the health of a rapidly changing natural system,” they write.

A few years later, President Donald Trump signed an executive order saying the federal government would withdraw from ocean planning and leave it more to the states.

Green said Virginia finally got the initiative going about a year ago, with the growing offshore wind industry being another major impetus.

“I think a lot of us have learned from offshore wind that it’s really good to sit down up front and think about the overlaps between these uses,” he said.

The state must also take into account the effects of climate change.

“We all know there are changes in the ocean,” he said. “It’s very important to find ways to plan and prepare for how those changes in the ocean might affect things like our commercial fisheries.”

The team will focus on state and federal waters, although state and federal waters will have an easier time making recommendations, Green said.

They have narrowed their focus to six categories: fisheries and aquaculture, energy and infrastructure, seabed resources, sustainability and conservation, transportation, navigation and safety, and cultural and historical resources and recreation.

CZM brought together over 100 experts in these fields to discuss what could have the greatest impact.

The agency also wants to inform Virginians about how they think about the ocean, how they treat it, and what concerns they have about its future.

This includes a community forum at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach this Thursday, August 15, at 6:30 p.m. For more information about this and other opportunities for public comment, visit on the DEQ website.

Authorities expect to release a draft ocean plan early next year. It will include recommendations for further research or policy, but most of them will need to be implemented by state legislatures.

“We don’t want a plan that gathers dust on the shelf,” Green said.