A panel of prestigious political, business and conservation leaders charged with finding better ways to protect the nation’s oceans will visit Maine next week.

The Pew Oceans Commission, headed by Leon Panetta, chief of staff for President Clinton, will be in the Rockland area from June 12 to 15.

The 20-member group will hold a public hearing from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 13, at the Samoset Resort to hear from area residents about protecting ocean resources.

In addition, commission members will spend time on a lobster boat, tour a salmon aquaculture facility and visit the Ducktrap River to learn about habitat restoration efforts.

The group will also learn about Maine’s unique community-based lobster management system and an Island Institute project that seeks to bridge the gap between scientists and fishermen.

Before coming to Maine, the panel will hold a public forum on fishing issues on June 11 in Portsmouth, N.H.

The commission, which includes the governors of Alaska and New York and the executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, York fisherman Pat White, has already traveled to Hawaii, California and Washington, D.C. Trips to Alaska and the Gulf Coast are also planned.

Due to concerns about overfishing, coastal development and pollution, the panel was formed in May 2000 by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a national philanthropic organization, to take a closer look at the management of the country’s marine resources.

The group was convened 30 years after a similar commission reviewed federal ocean management policies, because there is growing consensus that many of the policies in place to protect the oceans should be reviewed and improved, according to the Pew Trust.

Chairman Panetta stressed in a press release that the commission does not have the answers to the problems that plague the ocean, but it is seeking them from the people who work on and live near the sea.

“Our recommendations to Congress and the nation on ways to improve our ocean policies must reflect the experiences and views of those who live and work with these policies every day – fishermen, businesspeople, resource managers, conservationists, local officials and coastal residents,” he said. “We simply do not have all the answers today. Our job is to find those answers.”

One of those who makes his living from the water is White, who was recognized last year by the industry trade publication National Fisherman as one of three outstanding fishermen in the country.

“I represent those who make a living from the ocean,” said White, who has been lobstering since he was 18. “That is why I agreed to join the Pew Oceans Commission, [to] find new and better ways of protecting the oceans.”

A fisherman from California, three professors, four businesspeople and four representatives of conservation organizations are also on the commission. The group also includes an aquarium director, the mayor of Charleston, S.C., and a member of the Guam Senate.

While the governors are not expected to attend the Maine session, members of their staffs will. Also expected to be absent are Stephen Wolf, chairman of U.S. Airways, Inc., a company which is currently in merger negotiations with United Airlines, and David Rockefeller, Jr., a director of Rockefeller & Co., Inc., a private investment firm begun by his family.

The Pew Commission expects to make formal recommendations to Congress early next year.

The group’s review is limited to living ocean resources, such as fish and mammals.

Another national oceans panel now being appointed by President George Bush will be charged with considering the use of the seas for transportation and as a source of resources such as natural gas.