www.floridaoceanalliance.org   

July 19, 2004

WASHINGTON — They walked through congressional office buildings rehearsing their lines, encouraging each other and giving advice on what to say to lawmakers.

"Don't call it dredge and fill. Call it beach renourishment," Deevon Quirolo suggested to Dan Clark. "Use the terms they know."

Quirolo of Key West-based Reef Relief and Clark from Cry of the Water in Coral Springs were among a half dozen people representing Florida at the Blue Vision conference in Washington last week.

The meeting was the first of its kind, bringing together 250 representatives from 170 ocean advocacy groups, large and small — groups with names like The Lobster Conservancy, Living Oceans, the Marine Fish Conservation Network, The Otter Project, Shifting Baselines and Save the Oceans.

They had two aims: to begin speaking for oceans with a single voice and to support legislation on ocean conservation and sustainable use.

It is a grassroots effort, but they like the term seaweed better.

And they like BOB. That's the Big Oceans Bill, yet to be formally named by the group of bipartisan lawmakers who are launching it this week.

Blue Vision organizers set up dozens of meetings with the ocean activists and their legislators to show wide support for the informally named BOB. Folks from The Ocean Conservancy floated the name ORCA, Ocean Recovery and Conservation Act, for the bill. Orca is the species name for killer whales that are threatened by pollution, heavy ship traffic, and reduced prey.

But whatever its name, the bill's significance at this moment in history wasn't lost on them.

"This is a unique opportunity to change the way we manage our oceans," said Roger Rufe, president and CEO of the Washington-based Ocean Conservancy.

Rufe said strikingly similar reports from the Pew Oceans Commission a year ago and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy in April are a clarion call that our oceans are in trouble.

"If they had come out diametrically opposed to each other, they would have canceled each other out," he said.

Far from that, the Pew and the U.S. Commission reports echoed each other, detailing a litany of ills facing U.S. waters and the world's oceans in general. Those included increasing pollution, dramatically fallen fish stocks, dying sea mammals, disappearing coral reefs and coastlines that are more crowded with people every day.

BOB is the beginning of an answer, many lawmakers and marine conservationists say. Still undergoing final tweaking, the bill takes its cues from recommendations made in both ocean commission reports and focuses on ocean governance, research and education.

About BOB

In March 1983, President Reagan established the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ, extending 200 miles from the U.S. coast.

Its 4.5 million square miles is almost twice the size of the dry land United States, making it the largest public trust in the nation. But despite that status, America's coastal waters have suffered under an escalating onslaught of overuse and abuse that has been compounded by fragmented management.

In contrast, BOB does not address ocean issues piecemeal. That was a common complaint in the two ocean reports.

The purpose of the bill is to be an example of how we can do ecosystem-based management for our oceans on a large scale, said Jessica Schaffer, an aide to Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif.

Farr is among the four co-chairmen of the 50 plus-member, bipartisan House Oceans Caucus and an author and co-sponsor of BOB.

On ocean governance, the bill seeks to create regionally based management groups and suggests that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration create an umbrella entity to oversee ocean management.

Schaffer said the bill would also set standards on what America should be accomplishing on ocean research and public education.

Along with BOB, there are four smaller bills in the works called LOBs, or little ocean bills, that deal with individual issues such as fisheries management and codifying NOAA's existence. The agency that handles much ocean management, research and education was created by executive order under President Nixon.

There is also BOB's cousin on the Senate side: GOB, the gigantic oceans bill offered by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

There is some hope that Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., will sign on to the bill to show support on both coasts, but Nelson hasn't made that decision yet, his aides say.

Like BOB, GOB is not yet complete.

"The language is still coming in and we have not seen the final product," said Nelson spokesman Bryan Gulley. "We are not prepared to make that call since it is such a comprehensive and important piece of legislation."

It is late in the session during an election year, and many activists and lawmakers agree the bills — aside from the NOAA bill — likely won't go far this year. But they say these are important steps to make when ocean issues are front and center.

"It's really intended to help generate the debate and help shape the debate for next Congress," said Eli Weissman, who tracks legislation for The Ocean Conservancy.

Florida issues

Along with promoting BOB, the Florida contingent to the conference had local issues to discuss as well.

Among those were concerns about cruise ships dumping sewage as they sail from Port Everglades to Key West, the health of the Indian River Lagoon, the decline of coral cover in the Keys and the possible role of beach renourishment in coral loss along the state's east coast.

Quirolo believes nitrogen runoff from the Florida Everglades has contributed to the decline in coral cover along Keys reef tract. She asked lawmakers to tie funding for Everglades Restoration to meeting water quality standards.

"Time is of the essence," Quirolo said. "In three of four years, we can kiss the reefs goodbye."

She at least has the ear of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, whose aides say she will look into it. Ros-Lehtinen is also a co-sponsor of BOB.

"We were very encouraged by her positive response," Quirolo said.

As well, Quirolo was pushing for more money to pay for advanced sewage treatment in the Keys. Sewage pollution is another threat to the reefs, among many.

And Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, listened intently to Clark, who has documented the tie between dredging sand offshore to widen beaches and the demise of nearby reefs that are also affected by sewage pollution.

"We know it's dying, but to be out there keeping score is depressing," Clark told representatives.

The only assurances the group got from six lawmakers were promises to look into their concerns.

It is enough for now, they say.

"I think we were able to bring these issues to their attention from a constituent point of view," Quirolo said, adding that they will keep up the pressure.

David Helvarg, author of Blue Frontier who founded the organization by the same name and who organized Blue Vision, said the conference accomplished its objective of bringing together heretofore scattered ocean advocacy groups to have them begin acting in concert on large ocean issues.

He too plans to keep up the pressure.

"We need a movement that's going to unify people at the seaweed level, the marine grassroots," he said. "We have the field organizations that can pass an effective oceans bill despite opposition from saltwater special interests and lack of interest altogether."

Helvarg said his group plans to have similar regional meetings in the coming year and to repeat the effort last week that brought activists to Washington to talk to lawmakers face to face.