BOEM's Marine Minerals Program ensures the safe removal of offshore sand resources by collaborating with stakeholders, monitoring supply, and providing transparent data to promote coastal resilience and sustainable management.
How BOEM Promotes Coastal Resilience and Sustainable Management
As the nation’s steward for offshore marine minerals resources, BOEM ensures that the removal of any mineral resource is done in a safe and environmentally sound manner. We do this by helping to find where Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) sand is (and is not), facilitating use of OCS sand, monitoring sand supply, demand, and use, environmental conditions and potential impacts, and mitigating conflict along the way. BOEM’s Marine Minerals Program (MMP) partners with diverse stakeholders to conduct studies and research for shore protection, restoration, and beach nourishment while prioritizing sustainable management of marine mineral resources.
Building and progressing the National Offshore Sand Inventory (NOSI) is fundamental to address BOEM Marine Mineral Program’s mission related to coastal resilience and future stewardship of a limited, finite ocean resource. BOEM’s NOSI and coupled application of regional sediment management (RSM) principles adopt a systems approach to address sediment management to yield more sustainable solutions across coastal compartments and ecoregions, as well as administrative programs and projects. NOSI explores these fundamental questions - where are useful OCS sediments located and why, how much are there, and can they be managed sustainably to help restore or protect the coast?
Sediment is crucial for coastal resilience efforts, and there is potential sediment scarcity into the future in some areas. The Department of the Interior (DOI) and BOEM play a critical role; - without resources projects cannot be constructed. As a responsible steward and resource manager, BOEM needs to know where and how much resource may be available in order to make informed decisions on its use. Our Marine Mineral Information System (MMIS) Viewer offers transparent, collaborative access to crucial data. This user-friendly platform enables exploration of marine mineral information, fostering teamwork in resource management.
Learn How BOEM Helps Restore and Protect America's Coasts
Watch the video below to learn how BOEM helps restore and protect America's coasts.