Marina Assistance

The release of the Guide kicked off CZM's Marina Assistance Program - a program developed to reduce environmental impacts from marinas. To roll out the program and introduce the Guide, CZM held five regional workshops in the spring of 2001. These meetings gave marina and yacht club staff and harbormasters an introduction to the program, and provided an in-depth discussion of the Guide, including an overview of BMPs marinas can adopt to lessen environmental impacts. Marina operators were also on hand to provide examples of practices adopted at their facilities. These workshops provided valuable information and interesting discussions about environmentally sound marina and boating practices.

The Guide is also one component of CZM's Clean Marine Initiative—a collection of measures targeted at boaters, communities, and marinas to reduce the pollution of marine waters. This initiative will provide oil-absorbing bilge socks to boaters, grants to municipalities to upgrade outboard boat engines, and will survey commonwealth boat pumpout facilities to find ways to improve this service.