www.floridaoceanalliance.org   

July 13, 2004

WASHINGTON — The ongoing Blue Vision conference in the nation's capital drew attention from three presidential campaigns Monday, and ocean advocates peppered speakers from two with questions about their plans for ocean policy.

The third, Independent Party candidate Ralf Nader, stood briefly at the back of a crowded roomful of ocean activists and scientists during a talk by Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Nader didn't speak or take questions from any in the group of about 250.

Connaughton briefed them on the Bush administration's reaction to the two recent ocean reports and fielded questions about ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty, among other issues.

Both the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission strongly recommended ratification. The treaty provides a framework for ocean management and proponents call it a constitution for the world's troubled oceans.

The debate over the treaty has the administration and environmental groups supporting ratification in the face of staunchly conservative opponents who don't want to hand over any authority to the United Nations.

Despite that, proponents say ratification is stalled for no reason.

"The Law of the Sea Treaty would pass in one day if the president and Bill Frist would OK a vote,'' said Warner Chabot, The Ocean Conservancy's vice president for regional operations. "It needs a two-thirds vote in the Senate, and the votes are already there. A few conservatives are preventing a fair vote and the president and Bill Frist don't want to offend them. That's what's blocking this historic treaty to protect the world's oceans.''

Frist, R-Tenn., is Senate majority leader.

Though Connaughton was politely received, it was obvious that John Kerry was the favorite of this group.

Comments from Roger Ballantine, Kerry's senior adviser on energy and the environment, drew applause several times.

Ballantine was critical of the administration for what he called a misuse of science, rollbacks of environmental protections for clean water and revamping of mercury emissions standards for power plants.

"Even if it's not easy, we need to do something about this,'' Ballantine said. "It's a new world and we need to evolve in our thinking.''

The second day of the Blue Vision conference saw activists planning an approach to lawmakers and getting advice from two of them about how to move their agenda forward.

Chief among them was U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., who told the group that, along with delivering that agenda to lawmakers, they have to sell it to the public as well, but he said the soil for that is fertile.

"There's a political renaissance that is happening in this country,'' Farr said, though he said being in the minority party has slowed ocean legislation.

Farr doesn't expect any legislation to pass this session but said he and other lawmakers are laying the groundwork for bills they hope to resurrect next year.

Florida activists attending the conference will spend part of today with lawmakers from the state to make clear the issues they want to see answered with legislation, said Deevon Quirolo, a co-founder of Key West-based Reef Relief.

Quirolo said the organization wants to see the governing ocean legislation, so far informally called the Big Oceans Bill, or BOB, as well as legislation to regulate wastewater dumping from cruise ships and reform of fisheries management.

Under the last of those, Quirolo and others are seeking relief from fishing trawlers for little-known deep water corals, some of which lie off Naples.

David Guggenheim, vice president for conservation at The Ocean Conservancy, has seen them firsthand from a submersible.

"Florida's most extensive and vibrant coral reefs lie in water that's too deep to even scuba dive in,'' Guggenheim said.

Known as Pulley Ridge, the reef is about 125 miles offshore and in 300 feet of water and is home to iridescent purple dinner plate corals and a host of others.

"It's every bit as full of life as the shallower reefs we're accustomed to seeing,'' he said.