Mid-Atlantic Seascape

The Mid-Atlantic Seascape is a highly productive, diverse marine ecosystem and an industrialized, urban hub for commerce.

From Long Island to Cape Hatteras, nearly 50 million people call its shores home, and its primary ocean-dependent industries—shipping, sport and commercial fishing, tourism, recreation and offshore wind energy—generate an estimated $48 billion per year, according to NOAA.

Healthy Oceans

 The Nature Conservancy prioritizes sustainable use of fishery and ocean resources by diverse stakeholders. Conservation challenges, including climate change and new ocean uses like offshore wind energy, demand our attention. TNC’s Virginia-based Mid-Atlantic Seascape team pursues two overarching strategic priorities:

1. Create and install innovative strategies for fisheries management and conservation
2. Protect vulnerable animals and ecosystems while supporting diverse ocean use

Over the past decade, TNC has worked to improve fisheries and the habitats that support them. 

Innovative Ocean Management in a Changing Climate

The Mid-Atlantic Seascape is defined by ecological and geopolitical boundaries and a unique maritime culture stretching from Cape Hatteras, NC, to Long Island, NY. The Mid-Atlantic shares some characteristics and conservation concerns with both the South Atlantic and New England, and delineations between these marine regions blur and shift as the changing climate warms the ocean.

An Ocean that Works for Everyone

Virginia has over 10,000 miles of coastline, from the ocean to tidal bays and rivers. Over 60% of Virginians live in the coastal zone, and 100% are connected to the ocean in some way. The Mid-Atlantic Seascape team capitalizes on the conservation work of our colleagues in mountains, forests and coastal estuaries to ensure that TNC in Virginia fights for every ecosystem in our commonwealth.

Healthy oceans are an important step to striking the conservation balance we all hope the future holds.

As people place increasing and often-competing demands on our ocean, TNC is employing its signature strengths in science and collaboration to change how society views and uses our ocean.

Rather than treating it as inexhaustible, TNC works with partners in government, industry and other NGOs to advance policies and practices that balance the ocean’s many uses while restoring and sustaining the integrity of its natural systems—using the ocean wisely without crowding nature out.

Our successes to date prove that change is possible:

• Created the Ocean Data Portal, an interactive tool that allows ocean planners to make smarter decisions and help solve challenges, such as adjusting shipping lanes to reduce collisions with whales and placing potential wind turbines to keep seabirds and marine mammals out of harm’s way.
• Protected more than 50 species of forage fish—including the iconic Atlantic menhaden—from new or expanding fisheries, until scientists can set safe harvest levels that leave fish in the water to serve as food for predators.
• Defended and advanced menhaden fishery reform to ensure that menhaden catch limits are safe for the ecosystem, allowing profitable harvest while leaving enough menhaden in the water to serve as food for humpback whales, striped bass and other predators. 
• Protected 40,000 square miles of deep-sea coral habitat in partnership with the fishing industry, coral scientists and other conservation groups and fishery managers. Major fishery regulation changes typically bring intense conflict and litigation—working together, we developed trust and reached consensus on fishery closure boundaries. 
• Completed the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan, which increases coordination and information sharing among state and federal agencies when making all ocean management decisions. 

WATCH: In this mid-week webinar, our experts discuss topics including the future of off-shore wind and demonstrate a new mapping tool that is uniting researchers across the Eastern seaboard in understanding climate change effects in the Atlantic.