A Multi-Use Presentation Event, with Dr. Barry Costa-Pierce

“Go Big, Go Small, Do Everything…FAST”

When it comes to coordinating and planning the use of our ocean spaces – a “multi-use” approach – we’d best be prepared to think broadly, but in a tailored manner, to make it work effectively and efficiently. “Go big, go small, do everything…and fast,” recommends Barry Costa-Pierce, a Nord University (Norway) Professor and President/CEO of the Ecological Aquaculture Foundation. “We need to do the learning, we need to do the science – the right kind – and we need to build new learning communities as we do so.”

Costa-Pierce provided his insights on innovating multi-use practice during a recent online event, “Understanding Multi-Use: A Social-Ecological Approach to the Development of Integrated Offshore Food/Wind Energy Systems,” on January 31, 2023. The event, with 75-plus attendees, was organized by the University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center, the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, and Rhode Island Sea Grant, in tandem with Belmont Forum programming supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

On the one hand, Costa-Pierce indicated, we live in a time of great opportunity concerning the use of our oceans, as evidenced by the increasing appearance of offshore wind farms designed to lessen the planet’s dependence on fossil fuels. On the other hand, though, we face “wicked” problems regarding the practical implementation of ocean development, especially in terms of its impacts on the environment and on existing human activities, like shipping, commercial fishing and aquaculture.

The answer lies, he says, in bringing the best and appropriate science to bear within authentic, well-invested coastal community dialogues that are longer lasting and engage people in honest, if difficult, problem-solving – again, the “right science.” And in order for people to be able to figure out how to use the ocean wisely so that it remains viable while still answering our food and energy needs, among other requirements, we must do our homework in these areas: Production, Ecological Health, Social Influence, Technological Influence, Economics, and the Legal arena.

Headway, says Costa-Pierce, is being made in several of these areas. For example, science and outreach at several windfarms the world over are yielding information about the kinds of biodiversity, conservation and food systems (fishing, aquaculture) investments that could be built into the ocean energy sphere, while benefitting the marine environment. Also, more work is being done than ever before to ensure that new voices, of diverse audiences, especially in port communities, are heard in ocean use debate. Still, he says, the legal framework for multi-use scenarios, as well as the legal implications stemming from the complexities of ocean co-sharing, represent a yet-to-be-explored hinterland.

And while we can’t expect “tame solutions” for our “wicked” ocean planning challenges, we can, however, look to our shared past with land planning, in order to glean lessons learned from successes and failures. For example, he says, the United States would do well to learn from its agricultural transitions to agroecology and agroecosystems implementations; doing so could yield a better understanding of how we might integrate fisheries and aquaculture in the future in wide expanses of ocean “farmland” that will likely interweave with other marine infrastructure and development, as well as environment restoration efforts.

Response is needed in many areas, says Costa-Pierce, from infusing creativity into the design of new fishing gear, to leveraging advances in harvesting and using biofouling on marine infrastructures, to continuing to encourage marginalized audiences to join, and contribute to, ocean decision-making, to facing the reality that multi-use success will likely call as much for adroit tailoring at the local level as for significant, large-scale application on the global stage.  

The challenges are steep, but “magic” abounds, says Costa-Pierce, noting that the ocean planning arena enjoys several strengths, including the kind of science-informed practice found in Rhode Island, as well as leadership, partnership, and a shared willingness among coastal communities to learn and evolve. “Little by little, and a little means a lot,” he says. “And we must keep learning from each other, learning together, prioritizing development of learning communities.”