Myth: Everyone knows “You can't buy the ocean.”

Fact: Lands and resources lying within ocean and coastal waters can often be acquired in fee-title or less-than fee-title.

Frequently, conservation organizations and management agencies (as well as the general public) believe the oceans are not for sale. In fact, in many cases, the oceans are for sale. Government agencies responsible for managing lands and resources lying within ocean and coastal waters (considered common lands and public lands) have often sold permanent or temporary interests in these lands and resources for commercial and residential purposes. Private organizations are now taking advantage of these same opportunities for conservation purposes.

• States sell and lease interests: In the United States, it was once common for state agencies to sell (or grant) fee-title interests in lands and resources lying below the high tide line. Typically the sales were for interests in lands lying between the high tide line and low tide line (inter-tidal areas), but sales for lands lying below the low tide line (sub-tidal areas) also took place. While the practice of selling fee-title to these lands and resources is not as common now, in some locations, under specific circumstances, it is still possible. What is more common today is the sale of leasing interests (less-than fee-title interests) in these lands and resources. While leasing interests are typically for a specific period of time and for specific purposes, they can often be quite long in duration (in some cases, in perpetuity) and quite sweeping in scope (preventing all other uses on the site).

• Federal governments lease interests: The U.S. Federal Government and national governments of other countries often lease (or use lease-like mechanisms such as concessions, licenses, and permits) rights to resources in their exclusive economic zones of the ocean. Resources such as fish, oil, minerals, gravel, and seaweed are often sold through leasing mechanisms. Several conservation organizations are assessing if these mechanisms can also be used for non-extractive conservation purposes.
• Private owners can sell interests: To the extent that lands and resources lying within ocean and coastal waters are already owned by private entities, they can almost always sell them. Private owners normally have much more flexibility in how they manage and dispose of their ownership interests, making fee-title and less-than fee-title acquisitions negotiable. In some cases though, private owners may have historical restrictions on their interests in these lands and resources which can limit their flexibility. For example, in Washington State some submerged lands were granted to private companies for aquaculture purposes and are to revert back to state ownership if the lands are no longer used for such purposes.
• Similar to terrestrial conservation strategies: Acquiring fee-title and less-than fee-title interests in lands and resources lying within ocean and coastal waters is similar to the tried-and-true strategies of buying fee-title to and acquiring conservation easements over upland parcels. These practices have been used successfully by conservation organizations throughout the World and applying these same strategies to ocean and coastal environments is very similar. For example, as of 2006, The Nature Conservancy had protected 117 million acres of land throughout the world since the early 1950s while land trusts had protected nearly 34 million acres in the United States. Much of this protection was through proprietary acquisition of terrestrial areas. Recognizing differences and resultant limitations in land and sea tenure, the success of terrestrial conservation efforts sheds some light on the potential growth that leasing and ownership of coastal and ocean lands and resources could achieve.