The United States could learn from the experience of other nations in implementing its proposed ocean-management policy for coastal and marine spatial planning (Nature 465, 9; 2010).

For example, New Zealand has had problems in setting up aquaculture-management zones. These difficulties stem from an inflexible spatial-planning policy known as zoning, traditionally used for land-use management.

Long-term zoning depends on the allocation and maintenance of spatially explicit property rights. But many nations do not have these rights or they may differ markedly among sectors in the marine zone (see, for example, M. T. Gibbs Mar. Policy 31, 112–116; 2007).

Decisions on marine spatial zoning are too frequently based on disparate and limited data sets that have coarse spatial and temporal resolution. They may also represent an outdated picture of marine community composition and habitat altering as a result of climate change.

The United States would be well advised to use a more adaptive approach to property rights and spatial management in its coastal and marine spatial planning.