Maryland Ocean Expert Awarded for Groundbreaking Work

Team Honored for Creating First Regional Ocean Action Plan

Gwynne Schultz (far right), was among four members that accepted the Peter Benchley Award May 11 at a ceremony in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.

A team of ocean experts, including Gwynne Schultz of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, received the prestigious Peter Benchley Ocean Award for more than three years’ work developing the first Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan.

Schultz, director of the Office of Coastal and Ocean Management, is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body, which received the award for “Excellence in Solutions” along with the Northeast Regional Planning Body and the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council.

“This is a significant recognition within the ocean sciences community, and I’m tremendously proud of Gwynne for her role in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Body’s groundbreaking achievement,” said Chesapeake and Coastal Service Director Matthew Fleming.

For Schultz it’s a fitting tribute to a long career with the department, from which she’s retiring this summer.

The impetus for the project was the fact that no single management entity is responsible for comprehensive, integrated stewardship of our oceans. That responsibility is distributed among numerous federal, state and tribal entities and includes hundreds of laws regulations and policies.

The effort to develop the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan was focused on providing tools, information and process to enhance the capacity of those entities and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to carry out their missions.

The process started more than three years ago and comprises six states, eight federal agencies, along with tribal governments and the fisheries management council. The group has a total 35 members.

“We engaged in a science-based planning process with meaningful public engagement to promote a healthy ocean ecosystem and sustainable marine economy,” Schultz said. “We didn’t create any new laws or regulations, we just figured out a better way of doing business.”

The group created about 45 different actions on how to work better with each other and with stakeholders. Among the project’s key outcomes was a pooling of a tremendous amount of data and information which can be accessed through an online portal. With this information sharing, the different entities can engage with each other early when making decisions that impact the oceans.