Bustling Coast meets Busy Ocean

Virginia has been shaped by its relationship to the Atlantic Ocean, both in history and in the present.

The Commonwealth is fortunate to have:

• Life-sustaining coastal and ocean habitats that support wildlife including shorebirds, whales, dolphins, seabirds, cold water corals and offshore canyons.   

• The deepest port on the east coast with more large container vessel traffic than ever.
  
  
• The largest naval base in the world, Naval Station Norfolk.
  
  
• Among the largest commercial seafood industries on the East Coast, landing hundreds of millions of dollars in seafood annually while supporting tens of thousands of jobs.
  
  
• A booming coastal tourism industry, drawing people from across the world to visit our beaches, barrier islands, and coastal waters.
  
  
• A developing major hub for offshore wind development, with construction of a 2.6 gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. 

Driven by increasing coastal population and demands for clean energy, local seafood, and resilient jobs, these uses of the ocean are growing, while new ocean uses are emerging.

Although the ocean is busy, we can collaborate to ensure there is space enough for both existing and emerging uses to exist with minimal conflict, and for human uses to coexist with marine life and habitat.

Developing a Virginia Ocean Plan

The Virginia CZM Program is collaborating with over 100 partners representing diverse interests - federal and state agencies, local governments, and a variety of stakeholders - to develop a Virginia Ocean Plan.  

Virginia CZM has been funding work related to Ocean Planning since 2011 (see History section below for more details). 

The development of a Virginia Ocean Plan builds upon this important work.

As part of the planning process, Virginia CZM is currently engaging six workgroups of subject matter experts organized around specific topics areas: 

1. Fishing & Aquaculture 
2. Cultural & Historic Resources & Non-consumptive Recreation 
3.  Seafloor Resources
4. Energy & Infrastructure 
5.  Sustainability & Conservation 
6.  Transportation Navigation & Security

With the support of the University of Virginia’s Institute of Engagement and Negotiation, Virginia CZM is facilitating meetings of the six workgroups to deepen our understanding of ocean uses, potential use conflicts, and to identify needs related to data, resources, or policies. 

A Virginia Ocean Plan Steering Committee, including  representatives from state agencies and stakeholders, will provide oversight and guidance as all input is shaped into a Virginia Ocean Plan.

A draft Virginia Ocean Plan is expected in the first half of 2025.  

Public and Partner Input Needed and Welcome 

Is the ocean important to you? Virginia CZM wants your input to help shape the draft Virginia Ocean Plan. 

Respond to a brief survey

Send your thoughts, suggestions, experiences, questions to virginiaoceanplan@gmail.com

Click here for more details.

For more information about Virginia Ocean Planning, contact Ryan Green, (804) 698-4258, Virginia CZM Program Manager. 

Virginia CZM Ocean Planning History 

Since 2011, through 5-year grants from NOAA (CZMA Section 309), the Virginia CZM Program has been supporting the development of comprehensive ocean planning to sustain our current ocean industries and needs, allow for new uses such as offshore energy development, and protect the ocean's habitats, wildlife and overall health. This has become an increasingly difficult challenge as coastal populations have grown, ocean uses have diversified and intensified and overall ocean health has declined.

Initially in 2012, the Virginia CZM Program sought to develop a Virginia Ocean Plan. However as the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body (RPB) was formed in 2013 to develop a regional plan, efforts toward a Virginia only plan were re-directed to supporting development of the regional plan. But since the RPB was disbanded in 2018 and federal agencies are technically not required to adhere to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Plan developed in 2016, once again it became relevant to develop a Virginia Ocean Plan. This is particularly true as finer scale planning is needed for activities such as offshore wind development and ocean wildlife conservation.

The current Section 309 Ocean Resources Strategy (October 2021 – September 2026) includes an emphasis on establishing a Virginia Ocean Planning Committee that will engage stakeholders to develop or improve ocean management policies, identify additional potential offshore wind lease and aquaculture areas, safeguard important fishing areas, integrate marine mammal/sea turtle conservation, address ocean acidification and other climate impacts, and minimize use conflicts.  Through a grant to MARCO to partially support its Program Director, the Virginia Ocean Plan will be developed in collaboration with regional ocean planning efforts.

A great deal of research, stakeholder engagement, and mapping of uses and resources has been initiated and undertaken by the Virginia CZM Program since 2007. The continued development of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal has created an incredibly strong foundation of thousands of data layers and tools for ocean planning never before available to resource managers, industry and the general public.

Below is a list of grant projects undertaken with our partners, including initial development of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal. 

Click on the links provided in the table to access descriptions and results for more recent projects. Information for earlier projects is available upon request.

Grantee	Grant Year	Task	Project
William & Mary Coastal Policy Center	2022	92.01	Virginia Ocean Plan Year 2
Virginia Commonwealth University	2022	92.02	Virginia Ocean Fisheries Stakeholder Coordinator
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources	2022	92.03	Incorporation of Sea Turtle and Marine Mammal Conservation into Virginia’s Ocean Plan
TBD	2022	92.04	Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Development
William & Mary Coastal Policy Center	2021	92.01	Virginia Ocean Plan Policies
Virginia Commonwealth University	2021	92.02	Virginia Ocean Plan Stakeholder Engagement
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources	2021	92.03	Integration of Marine Mammal/Sea Turtle Conservation into Virginia Ocean Plan
Virginia Commonwealth University	2021	92.04	MARCO Liaison to Virginia Ocean Plan
Virginia Commonwealth University	2020	94.01	Ocean Planning Stakeholder Engagement
Coastal States Stewardship Foundation/MARCO	2020	94.02	Development and Use of Webinars and Surveys to Engage Ocean Stakeholders
William & Mary Center for Conservation Biology	2019	10	Evaluating Overlap between Whimbrel Migration Pathways and Virginia Offshore Wind Turbine Leases
Virginia Commonwealth University	2019	94.01	Virginia Ocean Plan
The Nature Conservancy	2019	94.02	Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Development for Offshore Wind Planning
Virginia Commonwealth University	2018	94.01	Virginia Ocean Plan
The Nature Conservancy	2018	94.02	Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Development & Visualization Tools: Shifts in Core Abundance of Fish Species over Decades
Virginia Commonwealth University	2017	94.01	Ocean Stakeholder Coordination
Virginia Commonwealth University	2016	94.01	Virginia Ocean Plan
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources	2016	94.04	Sea Turtles and Fishing Piers – Mitigating Hook-and-line Interactions
Virginia Commonwealth University	2015	95.01	Virginia Ocean Plan
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources	2015	95.02	Introduction to the Virginia Marine Mammal Conservation Plan
Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center Foundation	2014	1	Section 309 Project of Special Merit: Documenting Endangered Migratory Species for Offshore Energy Development Assessment and Planning
Virginia Commonwealth University	2014	95.01	Virginia Ocean Plan and Atlantic Sturgeon EMF Study
Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center Foundation	2014	95.04	Offshore Energy Planning: Continued Documentation of Megafauna off Virginia’s Coast Using Aerial Survey
Virginia Commonwealth University	2013	95.01	Virginia Ocean Plan
Virginia Commonwealth University/ Virginia Department of Environmental Quality	2013	95.01	Virginia Ocean Plan
Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center Foundation	2013	95.02	Offshore Energy Planning: Documenting Location of Megafauna off Virginia’s Coast
Virginia Commonwealth University/ Virginia Department of Environmental Quality	2012	95	Virginia Ocean Plan
Virginia Commonwealth University	2011	95.01	Virginia Ocean Spatial Plan
The Nature Conservancy	2010	93.01	MARCO GIS Ocean Data Portal Phase II
The Nature Conservancy	2009	11	MARCO GIS Ocean Data Portal Phase I
Environmental Law Institute	2007	1.04	Assessment for Off-shore Energy Development Impact Readiness: Implementation Evaluation; Air Program and Dunes
Environmental Law Institute	2007	91.02	Assessment for Off-shore Energy Development Impact Readiness: Identifying Potential Impacts
William & Mary Center for Conservation Biology	2007	2.03	Developing a conceptual framework for evaluating the impacts of wind farms on migratory birds along the mid-Atlantic Coast
Environmental Law Institute	2007	1.04	Assessment for Off-shore Energy Development Impact Readiness: Implementation Evaluation; Air Program and Dunes
Environmental Law Institute	2006	1.06	Assessment for Off-shore Energy Development Impact Readiness: State Comparisons and Recommendations
The Nature Conservancy	2005	92.08	“Ecological Marine Units”: Mapping Natural Communities in the Ocean