Oceans in Crisis But U.S. Slow to Act

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, August 7, 2006 (ENS) – The federal government is failing to respond to alarming evidence that the oceans are in crisis, ocean experts told a Senate panel last week. Two years after a federal commission called on the Bush administration and Congress to aggressively overhaul the nation's ocean policy, key recommendations have not been implemented and critical ocean research efforts face deep funding cuts.

The state of the oceans is not good and "is getting worse," said Leon Panetta, a former California Congressman and cochair of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative.

Pollution, overfishing and coastal runoff are damaging the nation's oceans and coasts, and massive dead zones plague waters in the Gulf of Mexico, the Chesapeake Bay and off the coast of Oregon.

This dead zone near the mouth of the Missisippi River is overloaded with nutrients from upstream sources. This photo shows the color change between the oxygen-poor brown and oxygen-rich blue waters. (Photo courtesy NOAA)

The federal government is struggling to respond to these growing problems despite a clear blueprint on how to revamp ocean policy, according to scientists, ocean advocates and state officials at the hearing.

Panetta called the nation's system of ocean and coastal governance "dysfunctional, out-of-date, and inadequate."

"We need a national ocean policy," he told the Senate Commerce Committee's National Ocean Policy Study. "We have done it for clean water, we have done it for clean air, but we do not have a national ocean policy that commits this country to protecting the oceans."

The committee convened the hearing to examine the state of the oceans and the progress made in enacting the recommendations outlined in 2004 by the Congressionally mandated U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.

The commission called on the federal government to adopt an ecosystem-based management approach to oceans policy, increase investment in ocean research and strengthen the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), which is the lead oceans agency in the federal government.

The commission's report came on the heels of a similar study by the private, nonprofit Pew Oceans Commission - members of the two panels have since formed the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative to try and accelerate ocean policy reform.

In February the initiative gave the nation a D+ on ocean policy reform and expressed deep concern about the lack of progress.

For example, Congress has thus far failed to strengthen NOAA, which is hampered in part because it was created by a 1970 presidential order, not by a specific law.

A factory on the Calumet River discharges pollution into the water which eventually flows to the ocean. (Photo courtesy NOAA)

And neither Congress nor the White House has shown much appetite for increasing investment in ocean research.

The Bush administration proposed a $280 million cut to NOAA's budget for fiscal year 2007, including a 30 percent reduction for the National Ocean Service. The budget request eliminates or significantly reduces funding for programs that support reducing marine debris, oceans and human health research, nonpoint source pollution plans, cooperative fisheries research, marine mammal health research and ocean education.

"A budget is a blueprint of priorities," said Senator Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat. "Our oceans are facing enough manmade difficulties. We shouldn't compound the problem by refusing to allocate the resources that we must have in order to meet these challenges."

NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher refused to criticize the White House for the proposed cuts and said the budget cycle is "dysfunctional."

"I support the President's budget – it is the best we could do with the funding that we have," Lautenbacher told the panel.

Senator John Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican and chair of the subcommittee, told colleagues that NOAA's budget has increased 60 percent since 2000.

"I think we need to appreciate we've made good strides," said Sununu, who added that the Senate has taken steps to restore funding cut by the administration.

Last month the Senate Appropriations Committee passed an appropriations bill that includes $4.4 billion for the agency, well above the administration's $3.9 billion request.

But it remains to be seen how much of that will survive when the House and Senate settle their differences - the House budget earmarks only $3.4 billion for NOAA.

Fishing boats tied up at Squalicum Harbor, Bellingham, Washington. Overfishing is depleting U.S. ocean waters. (Photo by William Folsom courtesy NOAA)

"If ever there was a bipartisan issue, this is it," Boxer said. "We need to save our oceans. We can say all the things we want to say, but if we don't really show that we mean it by investing the resources … than it is useless."

Federally funded research efforts are critical, said Michael Orbach, director of the Duke University Marine Laboratory, because scientific knowledge about the oceans is "sorely lacking."

"Oceans are the black hole of environmental science and policy," Orbach said.

The U.S. spends only six percent of its research budget on efforts to study the oceans, Panetta said.

"We cannot deal with these issues … without science, without research," Panetta told the subcommittee. "We just can't do it."

Panetta also urged the Senate to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, calling it a "disgrace that the United States of America is the only industrialized country" that has not confirmed the treaty.

The 1982 accord, which has been ratified by more than 140 nations, sets forth international standards for navigating the oceans by commercial and military vessels, fishing on the open seas, mining the sea bed, laying communications cable, and protecting the marine environment.

It became effective in 1994 and there is broad agreement among ocean experts, the Bush administration and the majority of lawmakers that it is in the best interests of the United States to join the accord.

A handful of Republican Senators have blocked ratification of the treaty – they contend it gives the United Nations too much power.

"If we took a floor on the vote of the Senate we'd get at least 95 votes in favor of ratification, yet we are sitting on our hands," said Paul Kelly, a member of the Joint Oceans Commission Initiative and a consultant to offshore drilling giant Rowan Companies, Inc.