The New York Marine Sciences Consortium wrote a letter commenting on the New York State Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council report entitled “Our Waters, Our Communities, Our Future: Taking Bold Action Now to Achieve Long-term Sustainability of New York’s Ocean and Great Lakes.”
Overall, the NYMSC endorsed the recommendations in the report. However the letter expressed the NYMSC position that the report needs to be strengthened substantially in several important respects. The primary suggestion of the NYMSC to the council was that the final council report should more strongly stress that we must improve our knowledge of how ecosystems function. The report should better emphasize that our current understanding of ecosystem science is incomplete.
The NYMSC endorsed the research agenda in the Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) report and urged that its recommendations be implemented. The NYMSC also encouraged the Council to establish a permanent version of the SAG and indicated that our organization would be happy to recommend individuals to nominate for service on this committee.