Ocean’s Bounty

Responding to a commission that called for more attention to the country’s oceans, President Bush recently took the important first step of creating a Cabinet-level committee on marine policy to coordinate the 15 federal agencies involved in such issues. Signing an executive order to create such a committee is only the beginning, however. Most importantly, more federal funding is needed to achieve the goals, among them more marine research and rewriting fisheries regulations, outlined by the White House in its response to the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.

According to the commission’s report, issued in September, more than 2 million jobs and $117 billion in economic output are dependent on the country’s oceans and Great Lakes. This is more than twice the impact of the farm sector. The commercial fishing industry accounts for $28 billion in economic output.

Maine’s economy, too, is tied to the ocean. The ocean-related economy in Maine included 43,000 jobs and produced $1.5 billion in gross state product in 2000, according to a recent analysis by Charles Colgan of the University of Southern Maine. Fishing, and related spin-off industries, alone employ 26,000 people and account for $750 million annually, according to the Department of Marine Resources.

It’s not just about economics. The oceans provide more than 70 percent of the oxygen humans and other organisms need to breathe and sequester much of the carbon dioxide that could otherwise prove harmful to our health and atmosphere. The seas also play an important role in weather patterns and climate change.

“The Bush administration is focused on achieving meaningful results – making our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes cleaner, healthier, and more productive. We see a key challenge in developing management strategies that ensure continued conservation of coastal and marine habitats and living resources while at the same time ensuring that the American public enjoys and benefits from those same resources,” the administration wrote in its response to the commission report.

To do this, the administration proposed a laundry list of ideas and programs. Among the better ones: promoting the use of individual quotas rather than increasingly limiting the times and places when fishing is allowed to curb overfishing; clarifying the authority of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration; and supporting ratification of the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Good ideas that need more money include: a call for more research and observation of the ocean, using the Global Ocean Observing System, in which the University of Maine has played a vital role; improved water- quality monitoring; protecting and improving wetlands; and combating invasive species.

Ideas that need further debate because they may actually harm the oceans include: passage of the president’s Clear Skies legislation and the Clean Air Mercury Rule and more offshore energy development.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, chair of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Fisheries and Coast Guard, will be in a position to help direct action on the dozens of items included in the administration’s plan. She, rightfully, recognizes that money is a key issue. “Without a strong investment of federal resources, we will not reap the rewards of healthy oceans,” she said after the president outlined his plan.

The president provided a framework for new ocean policies. Now Sen. Snowe and her colleagues must decide what ideas should go forward and seek the money to make them a reality.