Oceans are in deep trouble
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The first comprehensive report on the nation's oceans in more than 30 years has sounded an alarm about the present and future threats to the health of these waters and to the industries and families that rely on them. Nor does the three-year Pew Oceans Commission study stand alone: Other recent studies also point to serious loss of marine life and other damage to the world's oceans that eventually could lead to environmental catastrophe.
Environmentalists, of course, always seem to be sounding such alarms. But sometimes the alarms are real, and the Pew study deserves serious consideration. More than that, its recommendations for a single federal agency to oversee ocean policy and for a National Ocean Policy Act deserve serious debate.
Critics say the result of those recommendations would be just another centralized Beltway bureaucracy. The critics are wrong; the result should be a better coordinated and streamlined approach to ocean policy rather than the patchwork of regulations, councils and agencies now involved in overseeing the health of the nation's ocean waters.
Legislation in support of the Pew study recommendations will most likely wait until after the release of another report later this summer from the U.S. Oceans Commission. But members of Congress should get on board with such legislation when it is introduced.
Not a pretty picture
The Pew report paints a dire picture. Among its findings: Coastal wetlands and estuaries are being hurt by development; nutrient runoff is poisoning the oceans; 30 percent of the fish populations that have been assessed are overfished or are being fished in a manner that won't sustain them; invasive species are establishing themselves in coastal waterways.
This is not to swallow hook, line and sinker every finding and every recommendation of the Pew Commission. Some in the fish and seafood industry argue that the current system works just fine and that fish stocks such as swordfish have been or are in the process of being rebuilt. Environmental groups, such as the National Environmental Trust, counter that the system isn't working anywhere near well enough.
All of those arguments deserve to be heard, although right now we'd say the onus is on the industry types to show in more detail why the Pew and other recent studies are all wrong.