Identifying Issues
The presentations on the first day of the conference set the stage for the second
day’s small-group discussions in which conference participants focused on identifying
and defining issues for the further attention of ESP socioeconomic studies. Three sets of
concurrent sessions were held. In the morning, Jim Lima led a discussion of Pacific regional issues, Michael Baffrey and Tim Holder led a
discussion of issues from the Alaska Region, and Harry Luton
and Claudia Rogers led a discussion of issues from the Gulf of
Mexico Region. In the first part of the afternoon, session leaders led discussions of
issues of cross-regional significance identified in advance of the conference. Lima’s
session discussed recreation and tourism, the Baffrey and Holder session discussed
traditional knowledge (with the assistance of Glenn Sheehan), and the Luton and Rogers
session discussed the changing nature of the petroleum industry. The third and final
period of the day was devoted to issues flowing from the morning’s discussion. Lima
led a discussion of the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in research, Baffrey
and Holder led a discussion of approaches to studying cumulative impacts, and Luton and
Rogers led a discussion of issues raised by the movement of oil and gas production into
frontier areas in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Although recreation and tourism, traditional knowledge and the changing nature of the
petroleum industry were identified as cross-regional issues, the morning's regional
division of interest persisted into the afternoon. The discussion of traditional knowledge
focused on Alaska, the discussion of recreation and tourism focused on California and the
discussion of industry restructuring focused on the Gulf of Mexico. Many issues raised in
the morning's regional sessions also resurfaced in these topical sessions. Hence, the
summaries of the issues raised in these sessions are grouped with the issue summaries from
the respective regional sessions and incorporate points made throughout the day. The
sessions devoted to cumulative impacts and frontier areas also continued discussion of
themes broached earlier in the day. For the sake of concision, rather then presenting the
issues raised in these sessions separately, they are treated as part of the larger,
day-long discussion. The issue summaries confine themselves to the content of the
conference discussions. Hence, some points are elaborated more than others, questions are
raised that are not resolved and the links among closely related issues are not always
drawn.
For more information, contact Rodney Cluck.
