Oceans Report Card Gives USA an F

Oceans Report Card Gives USA an F





    
January 2007  - The failure of 
Congress and the President to commit sufficient funding to 
oceans protection in 2006 earned the federal government a 
grade of F on the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative's U.S. 
Ocean Policy Report Card, issued today. 
State government initiatives, federal fisheries reform, and 
the designation of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine 
National Monument earned the highest marks, with regional and 
state ocean governance reform getting the highest grade for 
any of the six subjects measured in the report card, an A-. 
Hawaiian spinner dolphins in the clear lagoon waters of Kure 
Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (Photo by James Watt 
courtesy NOAA) 
The United States received an average grade of C- for all six 
subjects, up slightly from the D+ assigned for 2005 by the 
Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. 
Admiral James D. Watkins, co-chair of the Joint Ocean 
Commission Initiative, told reporters on a conference call 
today that the oceans are in deep trouble, in part due to the 
effects of climate change. 
"Storms, flooding, acidification, fisheries stock failures, 
algal blooms, dead zones, invasive species, loss of coral 
reefs which nurture one-third of the world's fisheries - we 
can't wait any longer if we're to reverse the decline," the 
admiral warned. 
"Addressing climate change is a high priority for most 
Americans, and although the climate and oceans are inexorably 
intertwined, the critical role oceans play in climate change 
is seldom addressed," Watkins said. "Our failure to increase 
ocean science investments to learn more about this link and 
how to manage its impacts means we are trying to fight climate 
change with one arm tied behind our back." 
Dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Louisiana 
and Texas is an area of low oxygen. (Photo by Nancy Rabelais 
courtesy Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium) 
"In the race to preserve our oceans, the states are 
outdistancing the federal government," said Leon Panetta, the 
other co-chair of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. 
"Our expert commissions have told Congress and the 
administration what they can do to pick up the pace and 
immediately begin to reverse ocean decline," Panetta said. "To 
bring this grade up in 2007, the bottom line is that more 
needs to be done if we are to protect our ocean resources." 
The report card is an assessment of the nation's collective 
progress in 2006 toward fulfilling the recommendations of the 
Congressionally mandated U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, 
chaired by Watkins, and the non-profit Pew Oceans Commission, 
chaired by Panetta. 
Admiral James D. Watkins is a retired U.S. Navy officer and 
former Chief of Naval Operations. He was Secretary of Energy 
during the George H.W. Bush Administration. (Photo courtesy ) 
The two have joined together as the Joint Ocean Commission 
Initiative, guided by a 10 member Task Force, five from each 
Commission. 
The Joint Initiative has identified $750 million in funding 
priorities that, if allocated in 2007, would be a significant 
step forward for research, management and education programs. 
The recent announcement of an additional $140 million in the 
President's FY 2008 budget for ocean-related programs is 
"welcome," the co-chairs said, "but the challenges facing our 
oceans clearly require a much greater commitment of 
resources." 
Admiral Watkins said that ocean-dependent industries are 
engines of economic growth, generating about $138 billion 
annually in the United States. 
"The $750 million we recommended, just shy of one day's 
operations in Iraq, is critical for reversing the oceans' 
decline," Watkins said. 
"For every $1 we invest in oceans, we protect $184 worth of 
economic activity, it's an 18,000 rate of return, but Congress 
and the administration failed again last year, earning a well 
documented grade of F," he said. 
Leon Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's chief of staff 
from 1994-1996, and represented California in the House of 
Representatives from 1977. (Photo credit unknown) 
The Joint Commission was particularly critical of a 13 percent 
cut in the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, NOAA, which Panetta said, "hurts our ability 
to deal with ocean issues." 
Both Panetta and Watkins stressed that legislation is also 
needed to provide a stronger framework for NOAA, which exists 
today under an executive order signed by President Richard 
Nixon in 1970. 
To supply the needed funding, the Joint Initiative again 
recommends establishing an Ocean Trust Fund supported by 
revenue generated by activities in federal offshore waters. 
This trust fund was recommended in the Joint Initiative’s 2006 
report to the Congress, "From Sea to Shining Sea," and by 
Admiral Watkins and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy in its 
report, "An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century," issued in 
September 2004. 
State leadership earned a grade of A- because states emerged 
as "important champions for oceans" in 2006, the Joint 
Commission said. The report card praises new statewide 
initiatives in New York and Washington as well as regional 
agreements to coordinate ocean management efforts on the West 
Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. 
Panetta told reporters that the federal government should 
create a comprehensive offshore management regime to govern 
all the offshore activities now underway such as wind farms 
and pipelines. "We need to create aregional ocean governance 
framework to support the states in their efforts," he said. 
"The federal government should encourage these efforts and not 
just on a hit and miss basis." 
Fisheries management earned a B+ grade due to the passage of 
the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management 
Reauthorization Act, which sets a firm deadline for ending 
overfishing. 
The Joint Commission also applauded the President's 
designation of 140,000 square miles of protected islands, 
atolls, and oceans under the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands 
Marine National Monument, and the development of a new 
national ocean research strategy. 
A fishing vessel at work in Florida's Apalachicola Bay (Photo 
courtesy NOAA) 
But Panetta said the Joint Commission would like to see 
Congress adopt a statement of national ocean policy, "that our 
nation is committed to protecting our oceans," as Congress has 
done with clean water and clean air. 
Incremental improvements in Research, Science, and Education 
resulted in a slight grade increase to a D+, up from a D for 
2005. Although sophisticated monitoring systems have been in 
place for decades to measure changes in the atmosphere, no 
such systems exist for our oceans. 
The report card, in line with the administration's research 
plan, calls for the strengthening of the existing Integrated 
Ocean Observing System, IOOS, to learn more about the ocean's 
role in climate change. 
The IOOS is the oceans and coasts component of the U.S. 
Integrated Earth Observation System. This system is the U.S. 
contribution to the Global Ocean Observing System, and also 
the U.S. contribution to the oceans and coasts component of 
the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, GEOSS. 
GEOSS is envisioned as an national and international 
cooperative effort by 61 countries to bring together existing 
and new software and hardware, including Earth observation 
satellites, making it all compatible in order to supply data 
and information at no cost by 2015. 
An endangered blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus, the largest 
of all cetaceans, surfaces off the Oregon coast. (Photo B. 
Lagerquist courtesy OSU/NOAA) 
The United States remains the only industrialized nation that 
has failed to accede to the United Nations Convention on the 
Law of the Sea, earning a grade of D- for International 
Leadership. 
Environmental groups and major U.S. industries such as 
offshore energy, shipbuilding, and maritime commerce agree 
that signing onto the convention will help to protect U.S. 
economic interests as well as the health of the oceans, the 
Joint Initiative said. 
But under the Republican controlled Senate of the past 12 
years, a few hostile senators were able to keep the Law of the 
Sea treaty from coming to the floor for a ratification vote. 
"We're feeling a lot more confident about getting the Senate 
to ratify the Law of the Sea, with new Congress," said 
Panetta. "If it ever came to the floor of the Senate we think 
if would pass with 90 votes. We finally think we have the 
leadership in place to bring it to the floor. This may be the 
year." 
A full copy of the report card, including a detailed 
explanation of each grade, is available online at: 
www.jointoceancommission.org.