Picture it: Dozens of kilometers off the coast of Texas, a giant polygon-shaped cage constructed of steel ribs and mesh netting floats 30 or so meters beneath the waves. The cage, moored to the seafloor, is filled with tens of thousands of teeming, silvery fish. Several kilometers away, offshore wind turbines sprout from the sea surface in a curving line, their spindly white arms churning the atmosphere. Still farther along the horizon, a massive oil platform squats heavily on four stumpy legs over its parcel of ocean, pipes plunging 11 kilometers into deep reservoirs within the seafloor. In the open waters between these industries, tankers and commercial fishermen follow snaking shipping lanes that lead them toward the coast.

 

This sea-sprawl scenario is not yet real. In fact, how all these industries might someday coexist in the vast real estate located in the United States’ deep offshore waters is still murky. But with a growing number of industries turning their eyes to the vast real estate offshore, the coastal ocean of the future may soon become a busy, crowded place. And that will require regulatory oversight that does not now exist.