Report offers ways to protect world's oceans

Some environmental groups said the plan isn't tough enough.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy released a massive and dismal report Tuesday detailing the degradation of the world's oceans, saying they're polluted, overfished and inattentively managed. The report offered more than 200 recommendations for improvement.
"Our oceans and our coasts are in trouble, and we as a nation have a historic opportunity to make a positive and lasting change in the way we manage them before it's too late," said retired Adm. James D. Watkins, the commission's chairman. Congress created the panel in 2000 to focus attention on ocean issues and management.
The study, the most comprehensive ocean survey in 35 years, notes that more than 37 million people and 19 million homes have been added to U.S. coastlines since the late 1960s. More than 40,000 acres of U.S. coastal wetlands a year are lost to development, according to the report, and more than half of the world's coral reefs may be gone in the next three decades.
Recommendations
Among their major recommendations, the commissioners call for:
UDoubling federal investment in oceans research, which now stands at $650 million annually.
UCreating measurable water pollution reduction goals, particularly for pollution that doesn't come from a concentrated source such as a sewage pipe or factory smokestack. The most troublesome source is storm water run-off that picks up fertilizers, lawn chemicals and other contaminants as it flows toward the ocean.
UImproving oceans education for elementary, secondary, college and graduate students.
UEstablishing a National Ocean Council in the Executive Office of the President.
To pay for ocean protection and enhancement, the panel proposes creating an Ocean Policy Trust Fund modeled after the Highway Trust Fund for transportation projects. It would be fed from royalties and other fees paid to the U.S. Treasury for offshore oil and gas drilling and "new uses of offshore waters." Fish-farming and deep-sea mining, both unpopular with environmentalists, are among the possibilities.
"Will it be tough to sell? You better believe it. But we're going to go for it," said Watkins. "Everybody wants to go after those revenues. Well, we do too. And we hope we can win it."
Criticism
While most environmental groups hailed the report for its comprehensiveness and practicality, several said that the commission could have been even tougher.
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group voiced concern over the commissioners' "omissions."
"They have chosen to ignore such key issues as the bipartisan congressional offshore oil and gas leasing moratorium that currently protects most of our fragile coastal waters," said Buffy Baumann, the group's oceans advocate. "The commission's glaring lack of support for the maintenance of this moratorium is alarming."
The commissioners said they're proud of the various recommendations, which can be undertaken separately. They said they're not asking Congress or state governments to do too much too quickly, and so they hope that the report will be taken more seriously than past studies.
The commissioners are asking the nation's governors -- and the American public -- to comment on the study by May 21. They plan to release their final report at the end of the year.