The Oregon Nearshore Research Inventory project: The importance of science and the scientific community as stakeholders in marine spatial planning

The purpose of Oregon’s Nearshore Research Inventory (NRI) project was to understand the geographic use of ocean space by the marine science community in order to include the information in Oregon’s marine spatial planning (MSP) process. Spatial data and attributes about the geographic use of Oregon’s ocean and coast by marine scientists were inventoried and mapped; including information about the geographic distribution of research, research timelines, and the people and institutions that conduct scientific research. The results of the NRI interviews show that the scientific community conducts research in twenty percent of the nearshore grid cells used in the Oregon’s Territorial Sea amendment process. These results show that ocean space is used by the scientific community, and therefore, should be recognized as a use of ocean space in the MSP process.