[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


 

             H.R. 897, H.R. 3925, H.R. 5441, AND H.R. 6235

=======================================================================

                          LEGISLATIVE HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

             SUBCOMMITTEE ON WATER, WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES

                                 OF THE

                     COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
                     U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION
                               __________

                       Thursday, January 18, 2024
                               __________

                           Serial No. 118-91
                               __________

       Printed for the use of the Committee on Natural Resources
       
       
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        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
                                   or
          Committee address: http://naturalresources.house.gov
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
                    
54-614 PDF                WASHINGTON : 2024             
      

                     COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES

                     BRUCE WESTERMAN, AR, Chairman
                    DOUG LAMBORN, CO, Vice Chairman
                  RAUL M. GRIJALVA, AZ, Ranking Member

Doug Lamborn, CO		 Grace F. Napolitano, CA
Robert J. Wittman, VA		 Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
Tom McClintock, CA		     CNMI
Paul Gosar, AZ			 Jared Huffman, CA
Garret Graves, LA		 Ruben Gallego, AZ
Aumua Amata C. Radewagen, AS	 Joe Neguse, CO
Doug LaMalfa, CA		 Mike Levin, CA
Daniel Webster, FL		 Katie Porter, CA
Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, PR	 Teresa Leger Fernandez, NM
Russ Fulcher, ID		 Melanie A. Stansbury, NM
Pete Stauber, MN		 Mary Sattler Peltola, AK
John R. Curtis, UT		 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, NY
Tom Tiffany, WI			 Kevin Mullin, CA
Jerry Carl, AL			 Val T. Hoyle, OR
Matt Rosendale, MT		 Sydney Kamlager-Dove, CA
Lauren Boebert, CO		 Seth Magaziner, RI
Cliff Bentz, OR			 Nydia M. Velazquez, NY
Jen Kiggans, VA			 Ed Case, HI
Jim Moylan, GU			 Debbie Dingell, MI
Wesley P. Hunt, TX		 Susie Lee, NV
Mike Collins, GA
Anna Paulina Luna, FL
John Duarte, CA
Harriet M. Hageman, WY
                                   
                    Vivian Moeglein, Staff Director
                      Tom Connally, Chief Counsel
                 Lora Snyder, Democratic Staff Director
                   http://naturalresources.house.gov
                                 ------                                

             SUBCOMMITTEE ON WATER, WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES

                       CLIFF BENTZ, OR, Chairman
                      JEN KIGGANS, VA, Vice Chair
                   JARED HUFFMAN, CA, Ranking Member

Robert J. Wittman, VA                Grace F. Napolitano, CA
Tom McClintock, CA                   Mike Levin, CA
Garret Graves, LA                    Mary Sattler Peltola, AK
Aumua Amata C. Radewagen, AS         Kevin Mullin, CA
Doug LaMalfa, CA                     Val T. Hoyle, OR
Daniel Webster, FL                   Seth Magaziner, RI
Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, PR         Debbie Dingell, MI
Jerry Carl, AL                       Ruben Gallego, AZ
Lauren Boebert, CO                   Joe Neguse, CO
Jen Kiggans, VA                      Katie Porter, CA
Anna Paulina Luna, FL                Ed Case, HI
John Duarte, CA                      Raul M. Grijalva, AZ, ex officio
Harriet M. Hageman, WY
Bruce Westerman, AR, ex officio

                                 ------                                
                                CONTENTS

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

Hearing held on Thursday, January 18, 2024.......................     1

Statement of Members:

    Bentz, Hon. Cliff, a Representative in Congress from the 
      State of Oregon............................................     2
    Huffman, Hon. Jared, a Representative in Congress from the 
      State of California........................................     4

    Panel I:

    Carl, Hon. Jerry, a Representative in Congress from the State 
      of Alabama.................................................     5
    LaLota, Hon. Nick, a Representative in Congress from the 
      State of New York..........................................     6

Statement of Witnesses:

    Panel II:

    Scholz, Paul M., Deputy Assistant Administrator, National 
      Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
      Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland....................     8
        Prepared statement of....................................    10
        Questions submitted for the record.......................    11
    Pickerell, Chris, Marine Program Director, Cornell 
      Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, Riverhead, New 
      York.......................................................    12
        Prepared statement of....................................    14
    Raines, Ben, Environmental Fellow, Writer, and Filmmaker in 
      Residence, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama....    15
        Prepared statement of....................................    17
    Anderson, Donald, Senior Scientist and Director, U.S. 
      National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms, Woods Hole 
      Oceanographic Institute, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.........    21
        Prepared statement of....................................    23
        Questions submitted for the record.......................    28
    Lum, Mike, Fundraising and Event Coordinator, Captain Rollo's 
      Kids at Sea, San Diego, California.........................    31
        Prepared statement of....................................    33

Additional Materials Submitted for the Record:

    Courtney, Hon. Joe, a Representative in Congress from the 
      State of Connecticut, Statement for the Record.............    46

    Bonamici, Hon. Suzanne, a Representative in Congress from the 
      State of Oregon, Statement for the Record..................    61

    U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Statement for the Record on H.R. 5441    62

    Submissions for the Record by Representative Bentz

        Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation, Letter to the 
          Committee on H.R. 897 and H.R. 3925....................    60
                                     



 LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON H.R. 897, TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
THE ALABAMA UNDERWATER FOREST NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY, AND FOR OTHER 
  PURPOSES, ``ALABAMA UNDERWATER FOREST NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY AND 
    PROTECTION ACT''; H.R. 3925, TO DIRECT THE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND 
 ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION TO ESTABLISH A GRANT PROGRAM TO FUND YOUTH 
 FISHING PROJECTS, ``YOUTH COASTAL FISHING PROGRAM ACT OF 2023''; H.R. 
    5441, TO REAUTHORIZE LONG ISLAND SOUND PROGRAMS, AND FOR OTHER 
       PURPOSES, ``LONG ISLAND SOUND RESTORATION AND STEWARDSHIP 
  REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2023''; AND H.R. 6235, TO AMEND THE HARMFUL 
 ALGAL BLOOMS AND HYPOXIA RESEARCH AND CONTROL ACT OF 1998 TO ADDRESS 
HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, ``HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM AND 
         HYPOXIA RESEARCH AND CONTROL AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2023''

                              ----------                              


                       Thursday, January 18, 2024

                     U.S. House of Representatives

             Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries

                     Committee on Natural Resources

                             Washington, DC

                              ----------                              

    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m. in 
Room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Cliff Bentz 
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Bentz, Graves, Webster, Carl, 
Duarte, Westerman; Huffman, Hoyle, and Porter.
    Also present: Representatives LaLota; Bonamici, and 
Courtney.

    Mr. Bentz. The Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and 
Fisheries will come to order.
    Good morning, everyone. I want to welcome Members, 
witnesses, and our guests in the audience to today's hearing.
    Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a 
recess of the Subcommittee at any time.
    Under Committee Rule 4(f), any oral opening statements at 
hearings are limited to the Chairman and the Ranking Member. I 
therefore ask unanimous consent that all other Members' opening 
statements be made part of the hearing record if they are 
submitted in accordance with Committee Rule 3(o).
    Without objection, so ordered.
    I also ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from New 
York, Mr. LaLota, be allowed to participate in today's hearing.
    Without objection, so ordered.
    We are here today to consider four legislative measures: 
H.R. 897, the Alabama Underwater Forest National Marine 
Sanctuary and Protection Act, sponsored by Representative Carl 
of Alabama; H.R. 3925, the Youth Coastal Fishing Program Act of 
2023, sponsored by Representative Salazar of Florida; H.R. 
5441, the Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship 
Reauthorization Act of 2023, sponsored by Representative LaLota 
of New York; and H.R. 6235, the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia 
Research and Control Amendments Act of 2023, sponsored by 
Representative Bonamici of Oregon.
    I now recognize myself for a 5-minute opening statement.

STATEMENT OF THE HON. CLIFF BENTZ, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS 
                    FROM THE STATE OF OREGON

    Mr. Bentz. I want to thank the witnesses for being here 
today and our Members for their interest in the issues we will 
be discussing.
    While debate in this Committee can often be contentious and 
partisan, this morning we are considering four bipartisan 
pieces of legislation that do important work in helping restore 
and protect coastal communities, protect the environment from 
hazards like harmful algae blooms, and introduce the next 
generation to the nation's fishing industry and the marine 
environment. Across the board, these efforts require effective 
partnership between Federal, state, and local government 
agencies, and input from the private sector and other 
stakeholders.
    Over the 118th Congress, Republicans on this Committee have 
consistently shown that economic activity and energy production 
do not have to occur at the expense of protecting the 
environment. Our coastal communities across the Gulf Coast, the 
Atlantic, and the Pacific are home to some of the United 
States' most pristine natural resources. At the same time, 
these coastal communities are some of the country's economic 
engines, driving industries like energy, maritime 
transportation, tourism, and fishing.
    The balance and direct relationship of these two interests, 
economic activity and environmental protection, are at the 
heart of the pieces of legislation we are considering today. 
For example, one of the bills we are considering would 
designate a 60,000-year-old underwater forest off the Gulf 
Coast of Alabama as a National Marine Sanctuary. This 
legislation would protect a critical resource, one that has 
been internationally recognized for future scientific efforts 
and other related activity. While the legislation includes 
important protections around the borders of the sanctuary, it 
also ensures that critical law enforcement and national defense 
activities, along with energy production that has previously 
been permitted, are uninhibited.
    It also is important to note that it was local fishermen 
who first discovered this forest: more proof that restoration 
and recreation can work together.
    Another piece of legislation being considered today 
reauthorizes the Long Island Sound Program, one of the 28 
estuaries included in the Environmental Protection Agency's 
National Estuary Program. The Long Island Sound Program has 
been successful since its creation in 1985, serving the Sound's 
communities along New York and Connecticut, along with the 
entire watershed which extends north to the border with Canada.
    This program helps work with local communities to deploy 
projects that restore the Sound and protect its coasts, sharing 
the most up-to-date science and data while helping convene 
working groups of state, local, and Federal partners. The 
program also helps provide financial resources to localities 
and other entities working on environmental restoration.
    The Sound is also a critical resource for commercial 
fishing. Montauk Point on Long Island is home to New York's 
largest commercial fishing fleet. Conducting important research 
in this region helps improve environmental outcomes like 
nitrogen pollution, while working with vital interests such as 
fishing that are critical to the economy.
    We are also considering legislation that reauthorizes vital 
programs that help address and respond to hypoxia events and 
harmful algae blooms, events that occur across all 50 states, 
not just along the coast. The Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia 
Research and Control Act of 1998 created a more formal, robust 
process across Federal agencies to address these issues. NOAA 
has found that HABs can have an average annual impact of 
between $10 and $100 million, and the cost to respond to a 
single harmful bloom event can be tens of millions of dollars.
    In June 2022, the Government Accountability Office found 
that NOAA and the EPA had made progress in developing plans to 
conduct research consistent with this legislation, but 
significant gaps still existed. By reauthorizing this 
legislation consistent with the GAO's recommendations, 
important reforms to consider additional impacts from HABs, 
focusing efforts both on the coast and inland freshwater areas, 
and more consistently measuring progress, we can respond to 
threats more effectively, protecting human health and natural 
environment.
    Lastly, we also consider legislation today that aims to get 
the next generation of Americans interested in the marine 
environment, particularly fishing. Outdoor recreation, 
including fishing, made up 2.2 percent of the United States' 
GDP in 2022, and exposing America's use to those activities is 
critical to increasing participation in them. By creating a new 
grant program at NOAA to provide resources to organizations 
conducting youth fishing activities, we can encourage kids to 
get outside, help them make lasting memories, build friendships 
and relationships.
    I am looking forward to hearing from the Members that have 
sponsored each of these bills, and hearing from our witnesses 
joining us today. Their perspective on the real-world impacts 
and benefits of these pieces of legislation is valued as we 
advance them, along the way of accomplishing key objectives 
that will help communities that we represent across the United 
States.
    I now recognize Ranking Member Huffman for his opening 
statement.

   STATEMENT OF THE HON. JARED HUFFMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
             CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

    Mr. Huffman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is good to be with 
everyone. Thank you for braving the weather and joining us 
today.
    Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask unanimous consent that 
Representative Joe Courtney of Connecticut have permission to 
sit on the dais and join us today.
    Mr. Bentz. Without objection.
    Mr. Huffman. Thank you. So, Mr. Chairman, you said it. We 
are taking a break from the regularly scheduled combat we 
sometimes see in this Committee and Subcommittees, and that is 
a welcome thing from my perspective. It is a good way to start 
off our first Subcommittee hearing of the new year with four 
bipartisan bills, all of which focus on protecting and 
preserving natural spaces or broadening access to outdoor 
recreation.
    Today, we will hear testimony on H.R. 6235, the Harmful 
Algal Bloom bill by Representative Bonamici. And you said it, 
Mr. Chairman, harmful algal blooms are a significant threat to 
marine and aquatic ecosystems in all 50 states and our 
territories. They grow quickly under particular conditions and 
produce toxins that poison humans and wildlife. And when these 
algal blooms die off, their decomposition removes oxygen from 
the water column, suffocating the surrounding environment. So, 
it is a huge problem, and it is good that we are taking action.
    This bill reauthorizes and updates programs that research 
and forecast these algal blooms and hypoxia across the United 
States. Those updates will help us protect communities with 
tools and partnerships that will improve health and safety of 
the water bodies that these communities depend on for drinking 
water, food, recreation, and tourism.
    I understand similar language was added to the Science 
Committee's markup of the Weather Act reauthorization and 
reported to the House, even though it is actually in our 
Committee's jurisdiction. But it is good to see progress.
    Now, although I support the bill's goal, I have to say that 
it is disappointing to see that breakdown in regular order. We 
have heard at length from House Republicans about how important 
it is for our Committee to work through every bill in our 
jurisdiction before it goes to the Floor. So, progress is good. 
I am glad we are having this hearing, and I am hopeful for a 
timely markup, but I do hope that this Committee will not be 
scrambling to play catch-up on our Committee's own bills going 
forward.
    In any event, I look forward to hearing from our witness, 
Dr. Don Anderson, the Director of the National Office for 
Harmful Algal Blooms and Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole 
Oceanographic Institution, on the importance of this bill.
    We will discuss H.R. 897, as well, today, Mr. Carl's 
legislation creating a new marine sanctuary protecting a well-
preserved underwater cypress forest that is dated 50,000 years 
old. That is older than most Members of Congress, Mr. Carl.
    Mr. Carl. Not in the Senate, though.
    Mr. Huffman. Not in the Senate?
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. Huffman. It is a good bill. I appreciate your work. My 
understanding is that these trees are an invaluable archive of 
information, recording past climate and environmental 
conditions. So, designating this marine sanctuary will protect 
a unique habitat while still allowing individuals to learn 
about and enjoy the ancient Alabama underwater forest. As co-
Chair, with Mr. Graves, of the National Marine Sanctuaries 
Caucus, I am excited to see this bill expand the sanctuary 
network and simultaneously protect communities and underwater 
treasures.
    Today, we will also discuss H.R. 3925, the Youth Coastal 
Fishing Program Act, which creates a grant program to support 
youth fishing that prioritizes projects that serve underserved 
communities. That is very important. These grants will remove 
financial barriers to outdoor recreation and education, and 
undoubtedly will foster connection to the outdoors through 
fishing experiences.
    And then finally, H.R. 5441, the Long Island Sound 
Restoration and Stewardship Reauthorization Act. Long Island 
Sound, situated between Long Island and Connecticut, obviously 
supports a lot of important coastal habitats and unique 
ecosystems. Unfortunately, development and industrial activity 
throughout the watershed and in surrounding areas have 
significantly degraded water quality and negatively impacted 
these ecosystems.
    In 1985, Congress created the Management Conference for the 
Long Island Sound Study to identify and address environmental 
problems, and through this conference and the Long Island Sound 
Programs grants are awarded to support projects and studies 
which help implement conservation and management plans 
benefiting the Sound and the surrounding watershed. This bill 
reauthorizes these programs through 2028 to support Long Island 
Sound Grants and Long Island Sound Stewardship Grants.
    I am happy to support all of these bills, Mr. Chairman.
    And I yield back.

    Mr. Bentz. I thank you, and I will now introduce our first 
panel. As is typical with legislative hearings, the bills' 
sponsors are recognized for 5 minutes each to discuss their 
bills.
    We will begin with Congressman Jerry Carl for 5 minutes.

STATEMENT OF THE HON. JERRY CARL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS 
                   FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA

    Mr. Carl. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, 
Congressman Huffman, for your support on this bill. That really 
means a lot to us. It means a lot to this country and, 
obviously, for the environmental community.
    My bill, the Alabama Underwater Forest National Marine 
Sanctuary and Protection Act, is an important measure to 
safeguard Alabama's ancient underwater cypress forest. 
Importantly, this bill strikes a balance between conservation 
and recreation use of this site. By designation of the 
underwater forest as a national marine sanctuary, we are 
preserving a one-of-a-kind, 60,000-year-old natural marvel. 
There isn't anything quite like Alabama's underwater forestry 
that has been discovered in this size and this age. The 
underwater forestry offers an opportunity for the recreational 
opportunist, such as scuba diving and fishing.
    The bill ensures that this site remains protected, 
prohibiting the removal of ancient trees, while allowing 
responsible access to the public.
    Just like Yellowstone and Yosemite, this forest should be 
accessible to tourists while protecting from disruptive 
activity, and this bill does that.
    It is crucial to recognize the benefits that will ripple 
through South Alabama's economy. We are not just preserving a 
natural wonder, we are laying the foundation for a sustained 
economic gain. This legislation ensures that the underwater 
cypress forest remains a source of pride, wonder, and economic 
opportunities for generations to come.
    And gentlemen, I thank you again for your support.
    Mr. Bentz. Thank you, Mr. Carl.
    Next is Congressman Nick LaLota, who is recognized for 5 
minutes.

STATEMENT OF THE HON. NICK LaLOTA, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS 
                   FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK

    Mr. LaLota. Thank you, Chairman Bentz and Ranking Member 
Huffman, for hosting this important hearing today, and for 
allowing me to waive on to your Committee and to testify about 
an issue that is of critical importance to my district back 
home on Long Island: the Long Island Sound Restoration and 
Stewardship Reauthorization Act of 2023, H.R. 5441.
    In 1985, Congress created the Long Island Sound Study, also 
commonly referred to as the Long Island Sound Program, to 
identify and address the major environmental and ecological 
issues affecting the Long Island Sound and its watershed. Since 
then, Congress has reauthorized and funded the Long Island 
Sound Program consistently, ensuring that the vision of the 
program, clean, clear, safe to swim, and charged with life, is 
a reality for the millions of Americans whose everyday lives 
are affected by the Sound.
    The longevity and health of the Long Island Sound is also 
critical for Long Island and Connecticut residents. For many, 
the Long Island Sound and our waterways are our way of life. 
From environmentalists, to fishermen and anglers, to animal 
welfare advocates, to engineers and more, the Sound is how 
folks provide a better future for their families. We must 
ensure that the Long Island Sound Program continues for 
generations to come.
    Ask anyone on Long Island, really, the Sound has certainly 
had its fair share of issues. Pollution, over-development, 
algae, water quality, and dumping are just a few of the issues 
we have endured over the past several decades. The 
deterioration of the Long Island Sound and its natural habitats 
has also been an issue the Long Island Sound Program has 
addressed, ensuring that endangered native species can thrive 
in this environment.
    One of the biggest issues the Sound has faced is hypoxia, 
which has created issues for marine life in the Sound, 
including fish and shellfish. And as of 2022, Federal funding 
for the Long Island Sound has enabled programs to significantly 
reduce the amount of nitrogen entering the Long Island Sound 
from sewage treatment plants by 70.3 percent compared to the 
1990s; reduced hypoxic conditions by 58 percent compared to the 
1990s; and restore more than 2,000 acres of coastal habitats; 
and also fund 570 conservation projects.
    In Fiscal Year 2023, the Long Island Sound received $40 
million, the largest funding level in the history of the 
program. The House and Senate have both included $40 million 
for Long Island Sound in their Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations 
bills, and we are extremely grateful for their work.
    The reauthorization of the Long Island Sound Program has 
never been more important, and we have made incredible 
progress, but there is much more work to be done, and I look 
forward to working with this Subcommittee and all of my 
colleagues to reauthorize the Long Island Sound Program.
    I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 5441, the Long 
Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Reauthorization Act of 
2023, and I yield back the balance of my time.

    Mr. Bentz. Thank you. And before we go to our second panel, 
Ranking Member Huffman has 1 minute of remarks.
    Mr. Huffman. If that. But thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. 
I just wanted to take a point of privilege to acknowledge that 
today is the final Subcommittee hearing for two Sea Grant 
fellows who have been doing great work for both the Committee 
and my personal office.
    Basia, to my left, has been sitting in that chair for the 
past year. And these fellowships are really wonderful for the 
work that all of us do, but it is a little bittersweet because 
we get to know these folks and they do great work for us, and 
then they leave and we start all over again every year. So, 
thank you, Basia.
    And then Austin, behind, has been an invaluable member of 
my office staff, staffing me on all sorts of natural resource 
issues.
    They are both terrific, science-minded young professionals 
who are going to go on to do wonderful things, and I just 
wanted to acknowledge and thank them.
    Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
    [Applause.]
    Mr. Bentz. I thank the Members for the testimony. I will 
now introduce our second panel.
    Mr. Paul Scholz, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Ocean 
Services and Coastal Zone Management with NOAA in Washington, 
DC; Mr. Ben Raines, Environmental Fellow with the University of 
South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama; Mr. Chris Pickerell, a Marine 
Program Director with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk 
County in Riverhead, New York; Mr. Donald Anderson, Senior 
Scientist and Director of the U.S. National Office for Harmful 
Algal Blooms with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 
Woods Hole, Massachusetts; and Mr. Mike Lum, Fundraising and 
Event Coordinator for Captain Rollo's Kids at Sea in San Diego, 
California.
    Let me remind the witnesses that under Committee Rules, 
they must limit their oral statements to 5 minutes, but their 
entire statement will appear in the hearing record.
    To begin your testimony, please press the ``on'' button on 
the microphone. We use timing lights. When you begin, the light 
will turn green. When you have 1 minute remaining, the light 
will turn yellow. At the end of the 5 minutes, the light will 
turn red, and I will ask you to please complete your statement. 
I will also allow our witnesses to testify before Member 
questioning.
    I now recognize Mr. Scholz for 5 minutes.

 STATEMENT OF PAUL M. SCHOLZ, DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, 
   NATIONAL OCEAN SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC 
            ADMINISTRATION, SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND

    Mr. Scholz. Good morning, Chairman Bentz, and Ranking 
Member Huffman, and members of the Subcommittee. My name is 
Paul Scholz, I am the Deputy Assistant Administrator for NOAA's 
National Ocean Service. Thank you for inviting me to testify 
today on a number of bills under consideration by the 
Subcommittee.
    The National Ocean Service, along with the other line 
offices and staff offices in NOAA, is dedicated to positioning 
the nation to adapt to a future of wide-ranging environmental 
change that directly or indirectly results from a changing 
climate. All across America, but especially along our coasts 
and Great Lakes, Americans are already feeling the effects of 
these changes on our communities, ecosystems, infrastructure, 
and livelihoods each day. As a small and nimble organization 
taking on big challenges, we bring an ethos of partnerships and 
collaboration to all that we do to meet the growing demand for 
ocean and coastal data, products, and services.
    The National Ocean Service recently adopted a new strategic 
plan for 2023 to 2027 to help us amplify the positive impact of 
our program and budget. This new plan enhances synergies across 
our broad portfolio of authorities and expertise, and aligns 
closely with the Department of Commerce and NOAA's strategic 
plans.
    Further connecting these efforts with partners across 
sectors allows us to maximize the reach of our capabilities. 
The way that we conduct our HAB and hypoxia programs is a great 
example of this partner-centered approach. Harmful algal blooms 
occur in every state and territory. And due to the changing 
conditions in our rivers, lakes, and coasts, they are 
increasing in frequency, toxicity, and duration.
    Since the initial enactment of the Harmful Algal Bloom and 
Hypoxia Research and Control Act in 1998, Congress has 
authorized NOAA as the Federal lead for coastal and marine HABs 
and hypoxia. We share this role with EPA and the Great Lakes. 
Over the years since, Congress and NOAA have responded to ever-
increasing HAB and hypoxia threats with increasing investments 
in a comprehensive, national approach to research, monitoring, 
forecasting, and mitigating the impacts of HABs and hypoxia.
    Since the last reauthorization of HABHRCA in 2018, NOAA has 
continued to enhance and expand our operational HAB forecasts 
and near real-time monitoring networks across the country. We 
are also making strides in detecting HAB toxins to safeguard 
seafood consumers and public health. NOAA coordinates with and 
supports our Federal partners, tribal governments, and 
communities, and other stakeholders through grant funding, 
education and outreach, and citizen science efforts.
    The bill before this Subcommittee today would provide a 
vital reauthorization of NOAA's efforts to better understand 
HABs and hypoxia, and provide actionable information to 
decision makers nationwide to safeguard human health, 
ecosystems, infrastructure, and regional economies.
    Also before the Subcommittee today is the Youth Coastal 
Fishing Act, which would establish a new grant program to 
support youth's coastal fishing projects across the country. 
Recreational fishing is not just a cherished pastime for 
millions of Americans. It also generates billions in economic 
activity and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs.
    We believe that the bill aligns well with NOAA's long-
standing mission priorities, as well as the priorities of this 
Administration. For example, NOAA's National Saltwater 
Recreational Fishing Policy promotes inclusive and sustainable 
participation in recreational fishing.
    In addition, one of the central goals of the America the 
Beautiful Initiative is to increase the ability of underserved 
and under-represented communities to enjoy the benefits of 
nature, including recreation.
    Many of us who enjoy recreation and nature can intuitively 
understand how activities like recreational fishing instill a 
deep appreciation for both nature's wonder and the importance 
of sound, science-based stewardship.
    The last bill before this Subcommittee today that is of 
interest to NOAA is the Alabama Underwater Forest National 
Marine Sanctuary and Protection Act, which would designate a 
new national marine sanctuary off the coast of Alabama. The 
National Marine Sanctuary System encompasses and protects many 
of our national treasures in the oceans and Great Lakes. Many 
sanctuaries are highly valued destinations for boating, diving, 
fishing, wildlife viewing, and more. To conserve these 
qualities for current and future generations, sanctuaries 
provide comprehensive management while allowing for multiple 
uses, both recreational and commercial.
    We appreciate the support of Subcommittee members for our 
sanctuary mission, and I would especially like to give a shout 
out to Congressman Graves and Congressman Huffman for your 
leadership on the National Marine Sanctuary Caucus. Thank you.
    In closing, NOAA is proud to serve as the steward of 
America's ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources. We 
appreciate the Subcommittee's attention to these bills to 
enhance our mission, and I look forward to your questions.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Scholz follows:]
 Prepared Statement of Paul M. Scholz, Deputy Assistant Administrator, 
       National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
                            Administration,
                      U.S. Department of Commerce
            on H.R. 897, H.R. 3925, H.R. 5441, and H.R. 6235

    Chairman Bentz, Ranking Member Huffman, and Members of the 
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on a 
number of bills. My name is Paul Scholz and I am the Deputy Assistant 
Administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 
(NOAA) National Ocean Service.
H.R. 897--Alabama Underwater Forest National Marine Sanctuary and 
        Protection Act
    NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries works with diverse 
communities of partners and stakeholders to conserve and facilitate 
sustainable use of America's most iconic ecosystems and cultural 
resources in the ocean and Great Lakes. These special places support 
thriving recreation, tourism, and commercial economies. Of the 15 
sanctuaries currently in the National Marine Sanctuary System, 12 were 
administratively designated by NOAA pursuant to the National Marine 
Sanctuaries Act and 3 were designated by Congress through other 
legislation.
    H.R. 897 would designate an area encompassing approximately ten 
square miles of ocean off the Alabama coast as a national marine 
sanctuary. The bill would charge NOAA with protecting and managing this 
area and its resources, which include a stand of submerged ancient 
cypress trees that were buried in sediment for tens of thousands of 
years until they were uncovered by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
    NOAA would welcome the opportunity to work with the Committee to 
ensure that all information is up to date and that the bill would 
enable NOAA to effectively conserve the area in accordance with 
congressional intent. The National Marine Sanctuary System relies upon 
appropriated funding to implement management, public engagement, and 
research programs for both new and existing sanctuaries. This site was 
not included in NOAA's estimates informing the development of the FY 
2024 President's Budget. Fully funding NOAA's Sanctuaries and Marine 
Protected Areas line item at the Fiscal Year 2024 President's Budget 
request of $87 million would support the effective conservation of 
sites in the sanctuary system, which is contending with the management 
challenges of rapid environmental change overall.
H.R. 3925--Youth Coastal Fishing Program Act of 2023

    The Youth Coastal Fishing Program Act of 2023 would establish a new 
grant program within NOAA to support youth coastal fishing projects 
across the country. Engaging young people and removing barriers to 
participation in marine and coastal recreational fishing are priorities 
for NOAA, as well as the outdoor recreation industry, and essential to 
ensuring the sustainability of this cherished American pastime. The 
bill would authorize $2 million annually for 5 years to provide grants 
for youth fishing projects.
    NOAA's updated 2023 National Saltwater Recreational Fishing Policy 
aims ``to foster, support, and enhance a broadly accessible and diverse 
array of sustainable saltwater recreational and non-commercial 
fisheries for the benefit and enjoyment of the nation.''
    As drafted, the proposed grant program would allow grant recipients 
to use funds to reduce financial barriers for children to learn and 
experience the benefits of coastal fishing. NOAA, through the National 
Marine Fisheries Service and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, 
recently partnered with the National Park Trust to support underserved 
and military family fishing trips throughout our National Marine 
Sanctuary System. Additionally, NOAA participates in the Federal 
Interagency Council on Outdoor Recreation (FICOR) which is working 
across numerous federal agencies to create more safe, affordable, and 
equitable opportunities for Americans to get outdoors and has 
prioritized reducing barriers to access.
    NOAA would like to note a concern on the timing required in the 
bill. The bill states that ``1 year after the date of the enactment of 
this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on (1) the 
eligible entities awarded grants under this section; (2) the amount 
each such entity received; (3) how those entities used the grant award; 
and (4) the number of participants in youth fishing projects funded by 
grants under this section.'' This would require NOAA to establish the 
grant program, request, review and approve applications and grant 
recipients to host all events, and report back all activities within a 
12-month time frame. The 12-month deadline would be challenging to 
meet, particularly when most coastal recreational fishing occurs 
between late spring and early fall.
H.R. 5441--Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship 
        Reauthorization Act of 2023

    H.R. 5441 would amend the Clean Water Act to reauthorize certain 
Long Island Sound programs through 2028. The Environmental Protection 
Agency has primary responsibility for implementation of these programs. 
Although NOAA's National Ocean Service does not have a direct role in 
the implementation of the Act, Connecticut's Coastal Management Program 
and National Estuarine Research Reserve coordinate with the EPA's Long 
Island Sound Study on research and planning projects.
H.R. 6235--Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control 
        Amendments Act of 2023

    Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, and hypoxic events are 
scientifically complex and economically damaging occurrences that 
threaten our nation's communities and ecosystems. Every U.S. state and 
territory now experiences some kind of HAB event, the most severe of 
which can lead to hospitalizations from toxin exposure, commercial 
fisheries closures, income loss for tourism businesses, cultural, 
social and subsistence impacts, and wildlife strandings. For example, a 
single 2018 red tide event off the coast of Florida resulted in $318 
million in tourism business losses, and a 2014 bloom in Lake Erie 
resulted in $65 million in lost benefits, including recreation for Ohio 
residents, property values, and water treatment services.
    H.R. 6235 would reauthorize and amend the Harmful Algal Bloom and 
Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998, also known as HABHRCA. 
HABHRCA provides authority for NOAA's role in researching, detecting, 
monitoring, and forecasting HABs and hypoxia in our oceans, coasts, and 
Great Lakes. In addition, the Act authorizes cutting-edge research into 
HAB prevention, control, and mitigation. NOAA's programs focused on 
HABs and hypoxia are national in scope, but tailored to diverse and 
specific regional needs, providing actionable information about HABs to 
help decision-makers protect human health, the seafood industry, and 
other coastal resources. NOAA's HABs information also supports meeting 
nutrient reduction goals of international agreements such as the U.S.-
Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
    NOAA acknowledges that a major goal of H.R. 6235 is to improve 
coordination and cooperative efforts both across and within federal 
agencies, as well as to sustain and enhance monitoring and observation 
capabilities. Currently, NOAA co-leads the Interagency Working Group on 
HABHRCA and is a member of the Hypoxia Task Force. These groups are 
both highly effective in coordinating federal research activities, 
addressing mutual challenges, and producing legislatively-mandated 
progress reports. The legislation maintains NOAA's role as the lead 
agency for overall HABHRCA activities, and clarifies that the 
Environmental Protection Agency leads the freshwater aspects of 
program-wide duties, in collaboration with NOAA and the Interagency 
Working Group.
Conclusion

    NOAA is proud to provide data, products, and services that protect 
our ecosystems and enhance the Nation's resilience to climate and other 
environmental change. We appreciate the Committee's attention to the 
issues addressed in these bills, and we look forward to continuing our 
work with you on enhancing our programs and partnerships. Thank you 
again for the opportunity to testify. I am happy to answer any 
questions.

                                 ______
                                 

   Questions Submitted for the Record to Mr. Paul M. Scholz, Deputy 
         Assistant Administrator of the National Ocean Service,
         National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Mr. Scholz did not submit responses to the Committee by the appropriate 
deadline for inclusion in the printed record.

          Questions Submitted by Representative Gonzalez-Colon

    Question 1. H.R. 6235, the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research 
and Control Amendments Act, would amend current law to explicitly 
include Sargassum within the definition of a harmful algal bloom. I am 
very supportive of this and understand it was NOAA who recommended 
updating the definition to clarify that Sargassum is classified as 
such.

    Sargassum blooms have become a major problem for coastal 
communities in Puerto Rico, washing ashore and covering our beaches. It 
not only has a terrible odor, but once nearshore or on land Sargassum 
can have extremely negative effects, releasing irritants, smothering 
coral reefs, altering water pH balance, and disrupting the local 
tourism economy.

    Could you discuss how NOAA--using the authorities provided in the 
Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act--partners with 
other agencies and stakeholders to research, monitor, and improve 
forecasting of Sargassum blooms? And could you discuss, if possible, 
any specific investments or work conducted in Puerto Rico and the U.S. 
Caribbean region to address this issue?

    Question 2. What type of support or assistance, if any, can NOAA 
provide to help local governments and communities respond to and manage 
Sargassum inundation events, including to facilitate appropriate 
cleanup or removal efforts? Has NOAA conducted any efforts or outreach 
with coastal municipal governments in Puerto Rico to improve their 
capabilities to respond to these events?

    Question 3. H.R. 6235 would also provide NOAA authority to enter 
into agreements or grants with states, territories, tribes, and local 
governments to help pay for or reimburse costs associated with a 
harmful algal bloom or hypoxia event of significance. The bill would 
establish an Event of Significance Fund and authorize NOAA to transfer 
up to $2 million per fiscal year to support such efforts.

    Could you discuss how this provision could impact or potentially 
improve NOAA's and other federal agencies' ability to respond to 
harmful algal bloom events, including Sargassum inundation events in 
the U.S. Southeast and Caribbean regions?

    Question 4. In June 2022, the U.S. Government Accountability Office 
(GAO) released a report--titled Agencies Should Take More Actions to 
Manage Risks from Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia--where it found the 
Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act Interagency 
Working Group had taken some actions, such as developing a Research 
Plan and Action Strategy, but had not implemented a national harmful 
algal bloom and hypoxia program nor developed performance measures to 
assess the results of federal agencies' efforts to manage the risks of 
these events. GAO recommended that NOAA and the EPA, as Co-Chairs of 
the Working Group, should define what a national program would entail 
and develop performance metrics to assess federal efforts, including 
the extent to which the recommended goals from the Research Plan and 
Action Strategy have been achieved.

    Could you discuss what efforts NOAA has pursued to date, in 
partnership with the EPA, to address and meet GAO's recommendations?

                                 ______
                                 

    Mr. Bentz. Thank you, Mr. Scholz.
    I now recognize Mr. Pickerell for 5 minutes.

STATEMENT OF CHRIS PICKERELL, MARINE PROGRAM DIRECTOR, CORNELL 
  COOPERATIVE EXTENSION OF SUFFOLK COUNTY, RIVERHEAD, NEW YORK

    Mr. Pickerell. Good morning, Chairman Bentz, Ranking Member 
Huffman, and members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for 
inviting me to testify. My name is Chris Pickerell, and I am 
the Director of the Marine Program for Cornell Cooperative 
Extension of Suffolk County on Long Island, New York. I am here 
to provide testimony in support of H.R. 5441, Long Island Sound 
Restoration Stewardship Reauthorization Act of 2023.
    Before I address the program, however, I thought it would 
be helpful to provide a little background so you understand why 
I believe this bill is so important. I was born and raised on 
Long Island in a family that has worked on the water for 
generations. My father is a bayman, boat builder, and oyster 
farmer who worked in the harbors of Long Island's North Shore, 
harvesting clams to support our family.
    When I was very young, I spent many hours in his boats, 
mostly watching and sometimes helping. Through this experience, 
I gained a deeper appreciation for and a unique understanding 
of our local waters. However, by the time I was old enough to 
choose my own path, working on the water no longer offered the 
same opportunities it had for my father and grandfather. 
Instead of following in their footsteps, I decided to pursue a 
career in biology so that I might be able to protect the same 
waters that had once sustained my family.
    Long Island Sound is a 1,300-square-mile body of water 
lying between the southern coast of Connecticut and the north 
shore of Long Island, running from Manhattan out to the 
Connecticut-Rhode Island border. Its watershed encompasses 
16,000 square miles spread across six states, with an asset 
value of approximately $1 trillion. The Sound is situated in 
the midst of one of the most densely populated areas of the 
United States. Nearly 9 million people live within this 
watershed. Millions flock there for recreation, and it is a 
critical transportation corridor for goods and people.
    Additionally, the Sound provides feeding, breeding, 
nesting, and nursery areas for diverse animal and plant life. 
Managing an estuary of this size and complexity is a massive 
undertaking. Funding from the EPA supports a management 
conference consisting of a number of committees and work groups 
made up of Federal, state, and local officials, along with NGO 
partners and interested citizens. This structure brings 
stakeholders together to work towards a common goal set forth 
in a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan.
    The CCE Marine Program participates in this work through 
various planning and grant-funded initiatives. As part of the 
Cooperative Extension System, our mission includes supporting 
local communities and small businesses through education, 
outreach, and hands-on learning, as well as applied research 
projects that address emerging issues. The Long Island Sound 
Program helps us achieve this mission.
    With this funding, we have worked on a number of important 
stakeholder-driven projects based on local needs. These have 
included water quality monitoring, debris removal, habitat 
restoration, as well as supporting local farmers to introduce 
BMPs to protect the watershed.
    One of the most interesting and successful of these is the 
Unified Water Study, where we collaborated with over 25 other 
organizations and municipalities across the Sound. This 
initiative developed new protocols so groups throughout the 
region can collect comparable data on the health of bays and 
harbors, those same areas that once supported my family.
    Another important initiative involves removing derelict 
lobster pots left behind after the collapse of the lobster 
fishery in 1999. With funding from the Long Island Sound Study, 
we have been able to remove more than 20,000 derelict lobster 
pots to date. And as an added benefit, we hired local fishermen 
to take us out in their vessels, which helps keep them on the 
water.
    Other important work has involved restoring coastal plant 
communities, including seagrass and saltmarsh habitats. These 
systems provide critical ecosystem services, including support 
for recreational and commercial fishing, while also protecting 
the shoreline from excessive erosion. In this way, our work 
supports both the natural environment and valuable shoreline 
infrastructure.
    The common thread through all of this work is the funding 
made available in the bill you are considering today, and it is 
important to note that these grants require local matching 
funds and services that help leverage Federal dollars. This 
gives your investment an even greater impact.
    My brief testimony touches on just a few reasons why it is 
important to reauthorize the Long Island Sound Study Program. 
If you need more proof, I ask that you please look at the 
information contained in the links I have included in my 
written testimony. In these you will find a more complete and 
detailed list of the program's many accomplishments.
    Thank you for your time and consideration. I would be happy 
to answer any questions.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Pickerell follows:]
  Prepared Statement of Christopher Howard Pickerell, Marine Program 
       Director, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County
                              on H.R. 5441

    Good morning, Chairman Bentz, Ranking Member Huffman, and Members 
of the Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify. My name is 
Chris Pickerell and I am the Director of the Marine Program for Cornell 
Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County \1\ on Long Island, New York.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ CCE Suffolk is a subordinate governmental agency with an 
educational mission that operates under a form of organization and 
administration approved by Cornell University as agent for the State of 
New York. It is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal 
Revenue Code. The association is part of the national cooperative 
extension system, an educational partnership between County, State, and 
Federal governments. As New York's land grant university Cornell 
administers the system in this state. Each Cornell Cooperative 
Extension association is an independent employer that is governed by an 
elected Board of Directors with general oversight from Cornell. All 
associations work to meet the needs of the counties in which they are 
located as well as state and national goals.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I am here to provide testimony in support of H.R. 5441 to 
reauthorize Long Island Sound Study Programs.
    Before I address the program however, I thought it would be helpful 
to provide a little background so you understand why I believe this 
bill is so important.
    I was born and raised on Long Island, in a family that has worked 
on the water for generations. My father is a bayman, boat builder, and 
oyster farmer who worked in the harbors of Long Island's north shore, 
harvesting clams, to support our family. When I was very young, I spent 
many hours on his boats, mostly watching and sometimes helping. Through 
this experience, I gained a deep appreciation for, and a unique 
understanding of, our local waters.
    However, by the time I was old enough to choose my own path, 
working on the water no longer offered the same opportunities it had 
for my father and grandfather. Instead of following in their footsteps, 
I decided to pursue a career in biology, so that I might be able to 
protect the same waters that had once sustained my family.
    Long Island Sound is a 1,300 square mile body of water lying 
between the southern coast of Connecticut and the north shore of Long 
Island, running from Manhattan out to the CT/RI border. Its watershed 
encompasses 16,000 square miles spread across six states, with an asset 
value of approximately $1 trillion.
    The Sound is situated in the midst of one of the most densely 
populated areas of the United States: nearly 9 million people live 
within this watershed, millions flock there for recreation, and it is a 
critical transportation corridor for goods and people. Additionally, 
the Sound provides feeding, breeding, nesting, and nursery areas for 
diverse animal and plant life.
    Managing an estuary of this size and complexity is a massive 
undertaking. Funding from the EPA supports a Management Conference 
consisting of a number of committees and workgroups made up of Federal, 
State, and local officials along with NGO partners and interested 
citizens. This structure brings stakeholders together to work towards a 
common goal set forth in a Comprehensive Conservation and Management 
Plan.
    The CCE Marine Program participates in this work through various 
planning and grant-funded initiatives. As part of the cooperative 
extension system, our mission includes supporting local communities and 
small businesses through education, outreach, hands-on learning, as 
well as applied research projects that address emerging issues. The 
Long Island Sound Program helps us achieve this mission.
    With this funding, we have worked on a number of important 
stakeholder-driven projects based on local needs. These have included 
water quality monitoring, debris removal, and habitat restoration, as 
well as supporting local farmers to introduce best management practices 
to protect the watershed.
    One of the most interesting and successful of these, is the Unified 
Water Study, where we collaborated with over 25 other organizations and 
municipalities across the Sound. This initiative developed new 
protocols so groups throughout the region can collect comparable data 
on the health of bays and harbors--those same areas that once supported 
my family.
    Another important initiative involves removing derelict lobster 
pots left behind after the collapse of the lobster fishery in 1999. 
With funding from the Long Island Sound Study, we have been able to 
remove more than 20,000 derelict lobster pots, to date. And as an added 
advantage, we hired local fishermen to take us out on their vessels, 
which helps keep them on the water.
    Other important work has involved restoring coastal plant 
communities including seagrass and salt marsh habitats. These systems 
provide critical ecosystem services, including support for recreational 
and commercial fishing, while also protecting the shoreline from 
excessive erosion. In this way, our work supports both the natural 
environment and valuable shoreline infrastructure.
    The common thread through all of this work, is the funding made 
available in the bill you are considering today. And it is important to 
note, that these grants require local matching funds and services that 
help leverage Federal dollars. This gives your investment an even 
greater impact.
    My brief testimony touches on just a few reasons why it is 
important to reauthorize the Long Island Sound Study Program. If you 
need more proof, I ask that you please look at the information 
contained in the links I have included in my written testimony. In 
these, you will find a more complete, and detailed list of the 
Program's many accomplishments.
    Thank you for your time and consideration. I would be happy to 
answer any questions you may have.

Please see the following links for additional information about the 
Long Island Sound Study Program:

https://longislandsoundstudy.net/

https://longislandsoundstudy.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/
liss_sound_matters_fall _2023_issue.pdf

https://longislandsoundstudy.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/CCMP-
2022_Print_ Singles-1-final-9.13.23.pdf

                                 ______
                                 

    Mr. Bentz. Thank you.
    I now recognize Mr. Raines for 5 minutes.

  STATEMENT OF BEN RAINES, ENVIRONMENTAL FELLOW, WRITER, AND 
 FILMMAKER IN RESIDENCE, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA, MOBILE, 
                            ALABAMA

    Mr. Raines. I am going to talk for a second, and then we 
will start the video.
    I guess you all couldn't see it because I was seeing it 
right here.
    My name is Ben Raines. I am the Environmental Fellow at the 
University of South Alabama. My name may be more familiar to 
some of you as the person who found the Clotilda, the last 
slave ship to bring enslaved Africans to America. Similarly, my 
work brought the underwater forest to the world. There have 
been news articles, thousands of them now, all over the world. 
The documentary we made about it has been viewed millions of 
times, proof of how the forest sort of captured the attention 
of the world.
    So, here you are going to see some trees, and I am going to 
narrate this video as we go.
    [Video shown.]
    Mr. Raines. These are some scientists, some of the first we 
brought out there, and they quickly figured out the forest we 
now have determined was actually 70,000 years old, so even 
older than we thought.
    This tree here would be the size of a redwood if it were 
fully intact. Many of the stumps we found were 10 to 12 feet 
across. So, these are trees with a circumference of 30,000 
feet, if you can imagine.
    Now, the site is functioning like a coral reef. You can see 
the incredible numbers of fish everywhere. And the stumps all 
along the bottom are being colonized by crabs, and anemones, 
and all sorts of things, and new stumps are emerging all the 
time as they get uncovered by storms and things.
    One of the first things that happened when I first wrote 
about the forest was a furniture company offered me $10,000 for 
the coordinates, and that has only accelerated.
    Now, here you are seeing an ancient river channel that runs 
through the site, and you can actually see the path of the 
river meandering through the forest. There are some logs on the 
bottom there. So, you swim up to the edge of the river, the 
trees stop, you swim across the river, and the trees start up 
again on the other side.
    This is a modern cypress forest in Alabama so you can kind 
of see what we are looking at here. The underwater forest, to 
look at the mix of trees in it, to find a similar forest today 
you have to go to coastal Virginia. So, this was a forest built 
in the Ice Ages for the Ice Ages. Because of that, it gives us 
a unique climate record.
    Most of the climate data we have comes from ice cores, 
which exist today in cold places. So, this is giving us a more 
temperate view into the past, and there really isn't another 
climate record quite like it.
    This is an LSU scientist. She has done most of the aging 
work, and performed at the site, and we did a lot of the work 
at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. It has been a pretty 
incredible scientific effort. The entire ecosystem is intact. 
So, we have captured things, and this is a modern cypress tree 
the size of those I was talking about. We have collected 
everything from the ecosystem, pollen, seeds, even insects that 
were alive 70,000 years ago. It is a really unique peek into 
the past. There is nothing else quite like it on Earth.
    Here she is taking a core out of the tree. We figured out 
this tree was probably about 700 years old when it died 70,000 
years ago. So, you can see this is a glimpse into America 
before there were any Americans.
    Now, this is the bottom, about a quarter of a mile away 
from the site. You can see it is very barren. There is a 
starfish, there are no fish. And this is the site.
    As a diving destination, this will instantly become one of 
the premier diving destinations in America, and I can attest to 
that from the interest from the diving community globally to 
see this incredible place where you can actually swim among the 
dinosaurs.
    The idea that these furniture companies, which have now 
applied to the Corps of Engineers and the state of Alabama for 
permits, would be allowed to take these things up to make 
coffee tables is really absurd. This is a natural wonder, like 
the Grand Canyon or something like that.
    Here is a huge red snapper swimming through, these giant 
predator fish. Kemp's ridley sea turtle, our rarest and most 
endangered turtle. And here are some sponges growing on the 
site.
    One of the most unique things about it is that it is data 
we can't get anywhere else, but people can go enjoy it, and see 
it, and experience it.
    And this is a scientist from New Jersey, from Paterson 
University, and here you can see some of the wood and how 
intact it is. When we brought this wood up on the surface and 
cut into it, you get a fresh, piney scent. You smell that 
smell. You can see the growth rings in the trees. They are very 
tight, which indicates how cold it was back then.
    And here is this fellow, sawing the tree. When we got into 
the lab, by the time we got back the sap had actually started 
oozing out of these 70,000-year-old logs, if you can imagine. 
And that is what drew the interest of the furniture companies. 
The wood is intact enough at that age to be workable, you can 
make things out of it, furniture and things like that.
    We have a few sites around the Earth where there are trees 
in the water, like off England, but they are in about 10 feet 
of water and they are 2,000 years old. This window here is 
unlike anything else we can have.
    I would also like to report that 37 years ago I was in this 
building delivering mail as a Senate page. So, it is my 
pleasure to be back, and thank you all very much for having me.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Raines follows:]
     Prepared Statement of Ben Raines, Environmental Fellow at the 
University of South Alabama, Stokes School of Marines and Environmental 
                                Sciences
                              on H.R. 897

    The ancient cypress forest found sixty feet underwater in the Gulf 
of Mexico, due south of Gulf Shores, Alabama, is about 70,000 years 
old, say a team of scientists who have studied the site.
    The forest appears to be a wholly unique relic of our planet's 
past, the only known site where a coastal ice age forest this old has 
been preserved in place, with thousands of trees still rooted in the 
dirt they were growing in millennia ago. It is considered a treasure 
trove of information, providing new insights into everything from 
climate in the region to annual rainfall, insect populations, and the 
types of plants that inhabited the Gulf Coast before humans arrived in 
the new world. Scientific analysis of the site is ongoing.
    Meanwhile, the fate of the forest is at risk. After the first 
article by Ben Raines in 2012, a furniture company offered the 
journalist $10,000 for the GPS coordinates for the site. Raines 
refused. Eight years later, in 2020, the furniture companies sought 
permits to mine the trees from the seafloor from the U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers and the state of Alabama. There is no existing law to protect 
the trees from harvest. The primary thing preventing the furniture 
companies from moving forward is that they do not know the precise 
location of the Underwater Forest because we have refused to reveal it 
to the public unless the site is protected.
    Scientists believe the forest was buried beneath the Gulf sediments 
for eons, until giant waves driven by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 uncovered 
it. Before it made landfall, Ivan raged through the Gulf as a Category 
5 hurricane. Its winds pushed the largest waves ever measured, which 
were 98 feet tall when they passed over a cluster of government data 
buoys far offshore. Those buoys were ultimately ripped loose from their 
moorings by the storm.
    Samples were first collected from the site in 2012 by the 
laboratories at Louisiana State University and the University of 
Southern Mississippi.
    Dropping 10 fathoms down, below the green waves of the Gulf and 
back in time to this prehistoric world amounts to a sort of time 
travel's journey. Nothing like the forest, in terms of age or scale, 
has ever been found. A few trees, perhaps 1,000 years old, have been 
found off the English coast, and a handful of other places, but they 
grew in a world we understand well, one much like our own in every way.
    These trees sprouting from the seafloor off Alabama are so much 
older that they provide a window into a past scientists are still 
trying to understand. And there are thousands of them, part of a vast 
and swampy floodplain forest. The scientists believe the trees were 
buried under layers of mud in an age when sea levels were suddenly on 
the rise. That mud protected the trees from decomposition because they 
sealed them away from the oxygen-rich Gulf water. Underwater, where 
there is no oxygen, there is no decomposition. In effect, the trees 
have been hermetically sealed in place in a sort of natural time 
capsule.
    Predating the arrival of humans in North America and the pyramids 
of ancient Egypt by more than 50,000 years, the trees discovered in the 
Underwater Forest date to an ice age 70,000 years ago, when sea levels 
were hundreds of feet lower, and the Earth was much cooler than it is 
today, with much of the water on the planet locked up in glaciers.
    While most people think of the period from about 12,000 to 18,000 
years ago when they think of ``the'' ice age, the planet has actually 
been visited by dozens of ice ages, which occur every 40,000 to 100,000 
years.
    Kristine DeLong is a paleoclimatologist at Louisiana State 
University, expert in the climactic upheavals of the past. She usually 
studies coral formations, which can provide a record of what the 
world's oceans and atmosphere were like thousands of years ago. DeLong 
had samples from the forest sent for analysis at Lawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory using a method known as radio-carbon dating.
    ``At first, just based on water depth and looking at the sea level 
curve, we thought the trees should be in the 10,000 to 12,000 (year 
old) range. But we took some wood samples, sent them off to get radio 
carbon dated, and surprising results. They were not able to date them 
because the trees were so old we can't use radio carbon dating to date 
them,'' DeLong said.
    Radio-carbon dating can only reach back about 50,000 years, and the 
closer you get to 50,000 years, the less reliable the data becomes. 
Several follow up tests on additional samples confirmed that the trees 
were what's known as ``radio-carbon dead.'' DeLong then turned to a 
team of LSU geologists who collected core samples from the sea floor, 
known as vibracores.
    The vibracore machine punches a metal tube about four inches in 
diameter into the seafloor. It can penetrate down through nine feet of 
sediment, trap this column of dirt, and bring it back to the surface 
for analysis. The sediment trapped in the tube provides a clear 
chronology of the past, with layers of sand and mud being added over 
the millennia. Using extremely sensitive sonar machines, the LSU team 
was able to find an area with large numbers of trees that were still 
entirely buried in layers of sediment. In some cases, those trees are 
more than 10 feet down.
    From the vibracores, DeLong's team was able to find material from 
about 45,000 years ago that was recent enough to register when radio-
carbon dated. Then, by measuring how many inches of sediment separated 
that layer from the surface, and from the deeper layer where the forest 
lies, DeLong was able to calculate the age of the forest.
    ``In those sediment cores, right above the level where the forest 
is, we had some other pieces of wood. We collected those pieces, and 
those dates came back about 42,000 years old and we have a second date 
45,000,'' DeLong said. ``This tells us we are in the ballpark of 
between 50,000 to 60,000 years ago for the actual wood pieces.''
    In this earlier ice age, sea levels along the Gulf Coast were about 
400 feet lower than they are today, and the Gulf shoreline was between 
30 and 60 miles farther offshore than our modern beaches. Dauphin 
Island and the Fort Morgan peninsula on the Alabama coast were 
veritable mountains at the time, towering hundreds of feet above the 
surrounding landscape. And Mobile Bay was a valley, with a river 
running through the middle. At various points in the distant past, the 
rivers that today drain into the Mobile-Tensaw Delta ran south until 
they hit the Mississippi River, which in this ancient era made a sharp 
turn to the east in Louisiana and ran along the Mississippi and Alabama 
coasts toward the Florida Panhandle before entering the Gulf. Mobile 
Bay was a forested valley at the time, with rivers running through it.
    It was in this now inundated zone between the modern shoreline and 
the more distant ancient shoreline that the Underwater Forest sat. 
Scientists believe this portion of forest was miles back from the Gulf 
shoreline at the time, as cypress trees cannot tolerate exposure to 
salt.
    ``We're in this period called Marine Isotopic Stage 3. This is 
where we're going into full glacial conditions, but it is not fully 
glaciated yet. It's colder, it's windier. One of the things 
paleoclimatologists want to understand about this period is what was 
happening to different ecosystems. How was a bald cypress swamp 
responding to changes in sea level and it getting colder?'' DeLong 
said.
    Interestingly, an analysis of the types of pollen found in the LSU 
vibracores provides intriguing hints at how a bald cypress forest 
handled these changes in sea level and colder weather. In fact, the 
pollen record suggests the Underwater Forest was more like a coastal 
forest you would find today in North Carolina, where winters are much 
colder than on the Gulf Coast.
    Andy Reese, a pollinologist at the University of Southern 
Mississippi, specializes in reconstructing the environments of the past 
by looking at the pollen left behind by various plant species. He 
analyzed the deepest of the vibracores collected by LSU.
    ``The top meter of that core is just Holocene sand, like you sink 
your feet into at the beach. Then, the next meter is sand and then 
marine clay. Then, all of a sudden, it transitions to peat. That's the 
weirdest thing I've ever seen in an oceanic core like that, just 
perfectly preserved peat, that runs a half a meter down,'' Reese said. 
``When I started to look at the pollen, I was pretty surprised to see 
that it was all terrestrial. At first, it seemed like you dug up a 
scoop of dirt from a swamp just on the other side of town today. That's 
what was present in terms of species. But when I started to count how 
many of each type of pollen I found, it became apparent that different 
species were dominant.''
    In fact, the type of forest that Reese reconstructed is not found 
on the Gulf Coast at all today. Instead, the mix of species, with the 
dominant trees being cypress, alder and oak, fits with a rare forest 
type now found on the coast of North and South Carolina called the 
Atlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Levee/Bar Forest. In essence, the 
Underwater Forest wasn't like a modern Gulf Coast swamp at all. 
Instead, it was a forest designed for a colder place.
    That fits right in with what the trees themselves have to say about 
the world they were growing in.
    Studying the tree rings present in multiple samples from the site 
in the Dendron Lab at the University of Southern Mississippi, Grant 
Harley was able to create a timeline that covered a span of about 500 
years in the life of the forest. Harley, a dendrochronologist or tree 
scientist, took the lead in preserving and analyzing the physical 
pieces of wood collected from the seafloor.
    ``That was a big milestone in our understanding of the forest. When 
you think about the samples you collected, these are not ideal 
conditions. You were in 60 feet of water, you've got limited bottom 
time, your picking samples off the in-situ stumps, picking samples off 
the bottom. To have them all match up is not easy. It's actually very 
rare. I can't think of another study that's been able to do this,'' 
Harley said.
    ``In all, there were about ten of those wood samples that you and 
your team pulled up from the underwater forest that were usable for 
dendrochronology. I then took those ten samples, sanded them down, and 
I wanted to see if I could match up the patterns of wide and narrow 
rings that I see in those samples. If I could match them together, that 
meant those trees were growing--were alive--at the same time,'' Harley 
said. ``Drying the samples out was a challenge, because you have this 
wood that has been underwater for tens of thousands of years. I did 
some research on people working with submerged wood and you can have 
some checking and splitting in your sample if you dry it out too fast. 
So I put the wood into a fume hood, where I could control the 
conditions a little bit. I dried them out very slowly, over a period of 
about a month and a half.''
    Once the dried wood emerged from the fume hood, Harley was amazed.
    ``When we ran those samples through the band saw, you could smell 
the resin just like you were cutting into a fresh piece of wood today. 
Same thing with when we sanded them down. They smelled fresh. Very well 
preserved,'' Harley said. ``Given the fact that these samples are 
thousands of years old, I was astonished.''
    One of the most surprising discoveries was the sap that leaked out 
of the wood when it was cut, sap that had to be tens of thousands of 
years old.
    ``In every way, the opportunity to really study this site, to kind 
of reveal clues about what the climate was like in the Gulf Coast 
region is very rare. There are very few natural archives of long term 
climate change in the Gulf Coast region,'' Harley said. ``To have this 
site, uncovered by a hurricane of enormous stumps still rooted in the 
sediments that they were covered up in is a very rare and unique 
opportunity.''
    Once the wood was dried, Harley said he was able to study it using 
standard dendrochronology techniques.
    ``No matter the question you are trying to address, whether it is 
drought, or how an insect invasion influenced some trees, or a disease, 
you start by lining up the rings and cross dating the trees. Sure 
enough, I got 10 of them to match up together. They are all matching up 
together over the course of 500 years,'' Harley said. ``They weren't 
all alive 500 years, but all of those trees were alive at some point 
during that 500-year span. That's what we call a floating chronology. 
Some are older, some are younger, but they all overlapped while they 
were alive.''
    The oldest tree among the samples was about 700 years old. During 
several exploratory trips made by Ben Raines before any scientists had 
visited the site, divers measured two trees that were ten feet in 
diameter, with a circumference of close to 30 feet. In other words, 
some of these ancient trees, growing in a forest eons before humans 
arrived, rivaled the redwoods in size.
    ``When you look at the chronology through this 500-year time 
period, the most recent growth for the trees, right around the time 
they all died, the growth really slowed down, which is quite 
exciting,'' Harley said. ``It suggests these trees died around the same 
period of time and they died under adverse conditions. They were under 
stress. For instance, from drowning in saltwater due to a rising sea. 
Cypress doesn't tolerate saltwater intrusion. If you get saltwater in a 
cypress forest, those trees are going to die. That's what these results 
suggest. That's one scenario, probably the most likely.''
    That scenario matches up with another finding from the pollen 
analysis.
    ``In the top of that peat section, the pollen is mostly grass. 
There is sedge pollen, and a variety of other grasses. It is heavily 
dominated by grasses That's the main story,'' said Reese, the pollen 
scientist. ``But as you go back in time, it sort of transitions. Grass 
starts to decline and then cypress pollen starts to pop up. Then alder 
starts to pop up. You go from grasses dominating to trees dominating.''
    That, Reese said, would likely be a very typical response to a 
changing climate, with a fluctuating sea level.
    To understand the significance of the transition from trees to 
grasses at this spot, study a modern river delta. The plants in a river 
delta change as you move upstream from the open water the river dumps 
into, for instance Mobile Bay. The first plants on the soggy land at 
the mouth of the river are grasses. First there are the marsh grasses, 
spartina and juncus, like you see in a coastal marsh. Then, as the 
water freshens, you'll see various sedge species, and the round scirpus 
grasses, then taller cane like the Roseau, or Phragmyties, in the Gulf 
Coast estuaries. But all of these, even the 12 foot tall Rosea are 
grass species. Behind them, further inland, begin the trees. Then, 
imagine this river delta moving back, year by year, with the grassy 
fringe that is closest to the sea retreating ever northward as sea 
levels rose.
    It appears that just such a transition may be documented in the 
pollen collected at the Underwater Forest. From the time the trees 
died, a steady transition occurred in the pollen assemblage, ending 
with nothing but grasses typical of an estuary at the edge of the sea. 
Then the whole site was swallowed by the sea and buried under mud and 
then sand. Reese said such conclusions are tantalizing, but more study 
is needed.
    AL.com also invited paleontologist Martin Becker, with William 
Paterson University, to visit the site. Becker specializes in fossils. 
He's found the bones of a wooly mammoth and other ice age land animals 
during previous diving expeditions on the Atlantic Coast, and is at 
work trying to find signs of extinct squirrel-like mammals that may 
have lived in the Underwater Forest.
    He said the key to understanding how the forest came to be so far 
offshore comes from looking at the past. Becker has made a hobby of 
hunting for sharks' teeth and other ancient bones in Alabama streams. 
AL.com has joined many of his adventures and published accounts in 
these pages over the years. The day after his first dive on the forest, 
which included a close encounter with a shark, Becker was sifting for 
35-million-year old shark teeth below a waterfall on the Sepulga River.
    ``We're about 100 miles from the nearest shoreline, and we're 
pulling fossilized shark teeth from this modern creek. Certainly you 
don't see any sharks swimming around behind you. More than half the 
state of Alabama at one time was submerged underneath an ancestral 
ocean that dates back to the time of the dinosaurs,'' Becker said. 
``The record of that is recorded in the fossils, and in the regional 
geology . . . the Underwater Forest is about 120 miles distant, and the 
water in that area is about 60 feet deep. So you are talking about a 
substantial amount of sea level change. Obviously, at one time, that 
area was like a modern cypress forest today. Sea level has subsequently 
risen, and it is on its way up now. And it is going to return to this 
area that we are sitting in. And when it does, so will the sharks. It's 
just going to be awhile!''
    For all of the scientists working with the Underwater Forest site, 
studying the past is really about trying to understand and prepare for 
the future.
    ``It's pretty rapid change geologically speaking,'' Becker said, 
just after his first dive in the forest. ``We're looking at 60 feet of 
seawater where a forest used to be . . . I'm looking at a lot of 
development, of people's shore homes and condominiums, etcetera, you 
know. The forest is predicting the future, and maybe a pretty 
unpleasant one.''
    Indeed, DeLong said the time when the Underwater Forest was growing 
on dry land was a fraught one for the planet, with significant 
upheaval. Upheaval that may be somewhat analogous for our own times.
    ``Sea level 40 to 50,000 years ago is not stable. It's increasing 
and decreasing, increasing and decreasing. And some of this is tens of 
meters in just 1,000 years,'' DeLong said.
    For the record, DeLong is talking about sea level rising or falling 
around 75 feet in just 1,000 years. This would translate into a rate of 
sea level rise of about 8 feet every 100 years, or even faster than the 
current worst-case predictions for the near future.
    Becker said science provides such concrete proof of climate change 
and fluctuating sea levels that he fears the politicians of today are 
spending too much time arguing about what role pollution may have 
played rather than how to get ready for the coming changes.
    ``When you study the past, fossils and such, you start to think, 
`We're not here for a long time, we're just here for a good time,'' 
Becker said. ``The sea is rising, just as it has in the past. Places we 
live are going to be flooded, just as the Underwater Forest was. It may 
happen in five years, it may happen in ten, it may not happen in my 
lifetime, but it is going to happen.''
    The proof, he said, is all around us, from the fossils in the 
ground, to this ancient forest under the sea.

                                 ______
                                 

    Mr. Bentz. Thank you.
    I now recognize Dr. Anderson for 5 minutes.

 STATEMENT OF DONALD ANDERSON, SENIOR SCIENTIST AND DIRECTOR, 
   U.S. NATIONAL OFFICE FOR HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS, WOODS HOLE 
       OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE, WOODS HOLE, MASSACHUSETTS

    Dr. Anderson. Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, 
my name is Don Anderson, and I am a Senior Scientist at the 
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where for more than 40 
years I have investigated harmful algal blooms, or HABs, as we 
call them. Thank you for the opportunity to provide my 
perspective on H.R. 6235, the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia 
Research and Control Amendments Act of 2023, which I will refer 
to as HABHRCA.
    My key takeaway message today is that HABs and hypoxia, in 
their various forms, are national problems and require a 
comprehensive national research, monitoring, and mitigation 
strategy as formulated in HABHRCA.
    Both phenomena occur in marine and fresh waters, and thus 
affect every U.S. state and territory.
    HABs are accumulations of microscopic and macroscopic, 
think seaweeds, that cause harm in many ways. Some produce 
potent toxins that enter the food web and cause illness and 
death of humans who eat contaminated shellfish or fish, but 
also mass mortalities of fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.
    But there are many other impacts, including some caused by 
non-toxic species. Think of huge masses of rotting seaweed on 
beaches, or tiny algal cells with sharp spines that lodge in 
the gills of farmed fish, for example.
    In terms of scale, one massive HAB stretched from 
Washington State to Southern California, resulting in nearly 
$100 million in losses to the Dungeness crab and razor clam 
industries. Another, along much of the west coast of Florida, 
caused $200 million in damages and the loss of 3,000 jobs. And 
these are just two examples of many.
    Now, HABs also occur in fresh water, with many being highly 
toxic. A common sight is the green, slimy pond scum that you 
see on ponds or lakes. These affect people through recreational 
exposure, drinking water, and reduced property values, but also 
affect fish, wildlife, and domestic animals, including many 
dogs.
    Hypoxia, or low concentrations of dissolved oxygen often 
linked to the decay of algal blooms, can also have a wide range 
of detrimental impacts on human and animal health.
    Recognizing these challenges, my colleagues and I worked 
with Federal agencies and Congress to establish a national HAB 
program under HABHRCA, first established in 1998. And 
unequivocally, HABHRCA has been instrumental in establishing 
the framework and enabling the environment for Federal 
partnerships and research progress, with many accomplishments 
described in my written testimony, and these include innovative 
sensors for automated detection and monitoring of HAB cells and 
toxins, greater understanding of bloom causes and dynamics, 
operational HAB forecast systems, and promising bloom control 
strategies, among many others.
    But resource managers nationwide are facing expanding 
threats from multiple HAB species and poisoning syndromes that 
challenge their limited resources. Climate change is one factor 
contributing to that expansion, and is already affecting the 
distribution and abundance of multiple HAB species. And a 
warming ocean is also increasing the number of hypoxic zones.
    So, there is no doubt that the expansion of HAB and hypoxia 
problems is bringing many new challenges, yet most states lack 
the technical and financial resources to respond adequately. In 
this regard, the HABHRCA amendments provide mandates for 
sustaining our important funding programs, as well as 
sustaining operational forecasting capabilities and 
implementation of a national HAB observing network consisting 
of arrays of sensors and other instruments in the water that 
provide early warning of HABs and real-time data to improve our 
forecasts, just as weather instruments on land improve the 
accuracy of weather forecasts.
    Furthermore, the National HAB Control Technologies 
Incubator will provide proof of concept funds to promising 
bloom control technologies, and a clearinghouse of state and 
Federal regulations to help scientists navigate that 
challenging landscape.
    Let me close by stating that it is vitally important to 
reauthorize HABHRCA. I have worked in this field for 40 years 
as a scientist, and have seen these problems expand 
significantly, but I have also seen a clear acceleration of the 
benefits from sustained research support and the partnerships 
among diverse Federal agencies. Together, these efforts are 
leading to a greatly enhanced understanding of these phenomena 
and to the development and implementation of technologies and 
approaches that protect public health, fisheries, tourism, and 
other economic and social interests.
    Mr. Chairman, that concludes my testimony, and I welcome 
any questions you may have.

    [The prepared statement of Dr. Anderson follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Donald M. Anderson, Senior Scientist, Biology 
           Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
   and Director of the U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms
                              on H.R. 6235

    Chairman Bentz and Members of the Committee, thank you for this 
opportunity to testify today on important legislation for our Nation. I 
speak in strong support for reauthorization of HABHRCA and of the 
amendments contained in H.R. 6235.
    I am Donald M. Anderson, a Senior Scientist in the Biology 
Department of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where I have 
been actively studying harmful algal blooms (HABs) for over 45 years. I 
am here to provide the perspective of an experienced scientist who has 
investigated many of the HAB phenomena that affect coastal waters of 
the United States and the world. I am also Director of the U.S. 
National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms, a former co-Chair of the 
National Harmful Algal Bloom Committee, and have been actively involved 
for many years in formulating the scientific and legislative framework 
and the agency partnerships that support and guide our national program 
on HABs. This includes working on the first iteration of the Harmful 
Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 (HABHRCA), the 
law for which amendments are on the floor for the Committee's 
consideration today.
    My testimony today will summarize the national scale of the HAB and 
hypoxia problems in the U.S., notably their distribution, impacts, and 
trends as well as the emerging challenges facing those responsible for 
monitoring and managing these phenomena. I will also highlight recent 
research accomplishments and partnerships made possible by investments 
in the HABHRCA, as well as developments that are needed to improve the 
national response to HABs and hypoxia. Finally, I will provide my 
perspective on the programmatic, legislative, and funding needs of the 
national HAB program given emerging issues and challenges, and offer 
some comments about the Committee's draft legislation for the 
reauthorization of HABHRCA.
Background

    HABs and hypoxia are national problems that require a comprehensive 
national research, monitoring, and mitigation strategy. The increasing 
frequency, intensity, and spread of HABs adversely affect the health 
and economy of communities, states, tribes, and regions around the 
nation. Similarly, hypoxic zones are expanding throughout U.S. coastal 
waters, and worldwide. Smaller areas experiencing periodic hypoxia can 
grow into ``dead zones'' if contributing factors are not addressed. 
Indeed, dead zones have spread exponentially since the 1960s and have 
been reported in more than 400 receiving waters worldwide, nearly half 
of which are in the U.S. As the name implies, most forms of marine life 
cannot survive such low oxygen conditions.
    Congress has responded by increasing HAB and hypoxia funding for 
some agencies, in particular for NOAA's base and competitive programs, 
which is essential if we are to improve our understanding of how these 
phenomena develop and identify strategies to mitigate their impacts. 
These increases, however, do not fully restore major funding cuts made 
in previous years when the national HAB and hypoxia problems were much 
smaller than what we face now. Clearly, sustained funding at a higher 
level is a critical need. Enhanced support is also needed for HAB 
programs in the EPA, USGS, and multiple other agencies with mandates 
that include HAB and hypoxia issues.
    I want to start by highlighting the challenge that HABs and hypoxia 
pose to our nation. HABs are accumulations of microscopic and 
macroscopic algae (seaweeds) that cause harm in myriad ways. There are 
many species and types of HABs that occur in both marine and freshwater 
environments, leading to wide-ranging impacts on people and ecosystems. 
Some species produce compounds that are among the most potent natural 
toxins known. Either because of these toxins or the sheer biomass of 
the dense accumulations of the algae (hence the common term ``red 
tide''), impacts can be significant, including illness and death of 
humans who consume contaminated shellfish or fish; mass mortalities of 
fish, seabirds, and marine mammals; and even irritating aerosolized 
toxins that cause respiratory irritation and drive tourists and 
residents from beaches. To provide a glimpse of the scale of some of 
these phenomena, a few years ago a massive and highly toxic HAB 
occurred along the U.S. west coast, stretching from Washington to 
California. A few years later on the east coast, much of the west coast 
of Florida was impacted by major HAB events in 2018 and 2021 that 
devastated the Florida Gulf Coast marine ecosystem, tourism, and 
fishing industries. Millions of fish and hundreds of sea turtles, 
dolphins, and manatees perished, while driving residents and tourists 
away from beaches and coastal waters. Socioeconomic studies estimate 
approximately $184 million in losses in the tourism sector from the 
2018 outbreak, and, because of the consequent contraction to the rental 
market, the loss of nearly 2,900 jobs. These describe just two of many 
small- and large-scale marine HAB events that occur nationwide every 
year.
    Freshwater HABs are primarily caused by cyanobacteria or blue-green 
algae. These create serious problems, first due to the reduction of 
light and depletion of oxygen in the water, and second, through the 
production of potent toxins. Freshwater HABs can affect humans through 
recreational exposure and drinking water, and also affect fish, 
wildlife, and domestic animals. In 2014 a cyanoHAB near Toledo severely 
impacted Ohio's drinking water intake source in Lake Erie resulting in 
500,000 water customers being advised not to drink their tap water for 
nearly three days. A similar event occurred in Salem, Oregon in 2018, 
affecting a similar number of people but for a longer interval. The 
scale of these blooms can be massive, evidenced by the largest bloom in 
recorded history in western Lake Erie in 2015--an event that produced a 
surface scum that covered nearly 300 square miles.
    Hypoxia can also have a wide range of detrimental impacts on human 
and animal health. Low concentrations of dissolved oxygen, often linked 
to high concentrations or biomass of algal cells, can be lethal to 
aquatic species. Increases in hypoxia events have led to increased 
frequencies and magnitudes of fish kills and mass-mortality events. 
HABs and hypoxia are often linked in a positive feedback loop that 
further reinforces harmful conditions, such as when hypoxia in an 
aquatic ecosystem reduces the populations of algae-controlling fish 
species, allowing algal blooms to proliferate unchecked.
    Ocean conditions, such as those along the Pacific Northwest Coast, 
are affected by changes in winds that drive upwelling ocean currents 
that pull deep, oxygen-poor waters onto the shallow continental shelf. 
Stronger winds from climate change have accentuated the risk and 
severity of low-oxygen events. In recent years, the synergistic effects 
from HABs and hypoxia have repeatedly led to the closure of entire 
Dungeness crab fisheries along the Pacific Northwest Coast. As the 
result of low-oxygen waters being upwelled into coastal waters, oxygen 
levels can drop so low that Dungeness crabs suffocate in the pots of 
fishermen before they can be brought to market. This has led to massive 
die-offs of crabs impacting the region's most valuable fishery.
    As noted above, HAB and hypoxia events have wide ranging economic 
impacts, including the costs of conducting routine monitoring programs 
to keep dangerous shellfish and other affected resources off the 
market, short-term and permanent closures of harvestable shellfish and 
fish stocks, reductions in seafood sales (including the avoidance of 
``safe'' seafoods as a result of ``overreaction'' to or uncertainty 
with health advisories), mortalities of wild and farmed fish, 
shellfish, submerged aquatic vegetation and coral reefs, impacts on 
tourism and tourism-related businesses, and hospital treatments for 
people who fall ill. Furthermore, regional studies show that HABs and 
hypoxia cause losses in tourism, housing, and general business revenue 
that can amount to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. For 
example, the 2015 West Coast Dungeness crab closures and delayed 
openings mentioned earlier resulted in over $97.5 million lost from 
commercial landings compared to the previous years, and coastal 
communities in Washington lost an estimated $40 million in tourism 
spending for recreational activities.
National HAB and Hypoxia Programs

    The diverse nature of HAB and hypoxia phenomena and geographic 
variability associated with outbreaks throughout the U.S. pose a 
significant constraint to the development of coordinated national 
programs. Nevertheless, in large part because of HABHRCA, the 
combination of planning, coordination, and highly compelling topics 
with great societal importance has led to integrated research and 
response communities that include scientists, federal and state 
agencies, Tribes, and industry. In the past, many of these individuals 
and groups worked independently and with little exchange of ideas and 
data. The networks that now exist in many parts of the country are 
active and productive, and are a major factor in the growing 
capabilities of the national programs.
    Our national HAB ``program'', or strategy, is viewed by many of my 
colleagues in other disciplines and other countries as a model program 
that has succeeded because of its organization and partnerships. Given 
the diversity of HAB a impacts across different regions of the U.S., 
sustained national support is critical to allow agencies to respond to 
the inevitable outbreaks that will occur in different locations in 
future years. Historically, NOAA was often the only federal agency 
addressing this issue for our nation. The Interagency Working Group 
(IWG) on HABHRCA was then established by Congress in 1998 as an 
interagency task force, and today, it has over 16 member agencies, 
leveraging the expertise and capabilities of the federal government to 
prevent, mitigate, and even control these diverse phenomena. The IWG 
should be sustained, and in my opinion, NOAA has done an excellent job 
leading that group and should continue in that role.
    Partnerships are key to our success and help us point science in 
the right direction. The IWG-HABHRCA enhances federal coordination of 
activities that span agencies' jurisdictions to leverage capabilities 
where possible. For instance, CyAN, a satellite-based cyanobacterial 
monitoring network, is a collaboration between NASA, NOAA, USGS, EPA 
and USACE that provides near real-time cyanobacterial bloom data for 
more than 2000 lakes in the United States. Each agency alone would not 
have the expertise, technology, development tools, or funding to 
complete a project of that nature. Collaborative methods and 
technologies like CyAN help state and local officials make informed 
decisions on where to focus their limited time and capacity for testing 
and mitigation efforts.

    HABHRCA has been instrumental in providing the framework and 
enabling environment to move many of these federal partnerships 
forward. The academic research community strongly relies on federal 
funding through these programs to conduct our research across a very 
broad spectrum. Reflecting the diverse nature of HABs and their 
impacts, over the last 25 years the national HAB program has evolved 
into a comprehensive strategy that addresses all of the major elements 
of HAB research and management. Many of these program elements are 
authorized in HABHRCA. What follows is a brief summary of the 
individual scope of these research programs that complement each other 
and produce a comprehensive national strategy:

     ECOHAB (Ecology and Oceanography of HABs) is a critical, 
            core program that is needed to address the fundamental 
            processes underlying the impacts and dynamics of HABs. 
            Knowledge of how different factors control the initiation, 
            development, and decline blooms is a critical precursor for 
            advancing HAB management nationwide.

     ECOHAB research results have been brought into practical 
            applications through MERHAB (Monitoring and Event Response 
            of HABs), a program formulated to transfer technologies and 
            foster innovative monitoring programs and rapid response by 
            public agencies and health departments.

     Similarly, PCMHAB (Prevention, Control and Mitigation of 
            HABs) is a program dedicated to advancing research on 
            effective strategies for HAB prevention, control, and 
            mitigation.

     Now, the new federal Social, Cultural and Economic 
            Assessment of Harmful Algal Blooms (SEAHAB) Program will 
            further address critical gaps in assessing the 
            socioeconomic and cultural impacts of HABs.

     Additionally, the National Science Foundation and National 
            Institute of Environmental Health Sciences jointly fund 
            research on marine-related health issues through the 
            Centers for Oceans and Human Health program that is 
            bringing HAB scientists together with the public health 
            community to understand human exposure to HAB toxins, to 
            develop methods to detect, quantify and forecast ocean-
            related health threats, and to identify relationships among 
            parameters of climate change and increased human exposure 
            to toxins.

    This suite of programs has been a major part of the success and 
productivity of HAB research in the U.S., and therefore I fully support 
having them highlighted in HABHRCA and having other federal agencies 
participate in them where possible.
    Directly authorized by HABHRCA, the Coastal Hypoxia Research 
Program (CHRP) is a competitive research program focused on advancing 
the scientific understanding and management capabilities needed to 
assess, predict, and mitigate hypoxia events. The program brings 
together researchers, federal experts, blue industry, and stakeholders 
to address impacts of hypoxia on local communities and natural resource 
managers. For example, in 2022 CHRP provided academic researchers with 
funding to work with Oregon's Dungeness commercial crab fishery to 
cooperatively implement a hypoxia detection and monitoring program. The 
project team will deploy dissolved oxygen sensors on commercial crab 
pots in collaboration with commercial fishermen. The information 
collected with these sensors will supply hypoxia exposure data that 
will allow the fishing fleet to adapt to the onset of hypoxia events 
and the Oregon Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Shellfish Program 
managers to conduct in-season management of the fishery. The project 
will also help the fishing fleet to adaptively manage the crab fishery 
in response to hypoxic events by providing recommendations to bolster 
its multi-stressor readiness plan.
    All of these programs serve important topic areas, and collectively 
form the basis for what I believe has been an extraordinary pace of 
national progress addressing both HABs and hypoxia.
Emerging Problems

    Since the last reauthorization of HABHRCA, and as is evident from 
the diverse and expansive nature of the national HAB and hypoxia 
problems described above, managers responsible for the protection of 
human health and coastal resources are facing a growing and daunting 
challenge. Many regions now experience multiple HAB species, with many 
blooming at different times of the year, affecting multiple resources. 
State monitoring programs that used to focus on a single HAB poisoning 
syndrome are now struggling to cover two, three, and even four 
different threats, sometimes concurrently, greatly stretching scarce 
personnel and financial resources. In some cases, this has led to 
blanket harvesting closures in which entire coastlines are quarantined 
for months at a time on an annual basis, even though the affected 
resources may not be toxic across that entire expanse and time.
    Climate change will also almost certainly influence HABs and 
hypoxia since many critical processes governing their dynamics are 
influenced by climate, such as temperature, water column structure, 
water circulation patterns, and nutrient inputs. This is not a future 
problem, but one that faces us now. 2023 was the warmest year on 
record, and three other recent years fall in the top 10 of the warmest 
years recorded. This underscores the need for reauthorization of 
HABHRCA legislation, as there is no doubt that the rapidly changing 
climate is bringing us new and different challenges going forward. We 
know, for example, that climate change is causing increasing frequency 
and severity of marine heatwaves and general warming of surface and 
near-shore bottom waters that are already affecting the distribution 
and abundance of HAB species. Climate change is expected to exacerbate 
the HAB problem in some regions and shift species distributions 
geographically. In the Gulf of Maine, where I have done much of my HAB 
field research, we are watching with great concern a massive region or 
blob of exceptionally warm ocean water in the northwestern Atlantic 
near Labrador and Nova Scotia. The seawater in that area is as much as 
15+F warmer than long-term averages. We know that the region is 
important in the development of blooms of a HAB species that causes the 
human poisoning syndrome called amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP), and 
that changes in regional currents and water circulation can affect the 
paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) problem as well. The presence and 
persistence of a huge oceanographic feature of this type needs to be 
studied to better understand the changes that might happen with HAB 
phenomena in the region. Indeed, 2023 already proved to be a highly 
unusual year for the PSP problem in the Gulf of Maine, as there was 
virtually no toxicity observed throughout the bloom season across the 
entire region, a truly rare occurrence in the long history of annually 
recurrent, wide-scale outbreaks. Similar anomalies and heat waves are 
occurring in other areas of the U.S. coast, and the HAB implications 
are the same.
    A warming ocean also gives rise to oxygen-poor (or hypoxic) zones. 
This is because warmer waters hold less dissolved oxygen and stratified 
warmer waters on the surface of the ocean act to slow the replenishment 
of oxygen from the atmosphere to the deep ocean. The low-oxygen zones 
that we experience today are more severe and closer to shore than what 
can be seen in historical records that go back seven decades. Just as 
we have wildfire seasons that start earlier and spread farther on land 
because of climate change, Oregon and other states now have hypoxia 
seasons that return to those coastal waters each year. Similarly, 
freshwater cyanoHABs are expected to worsen as temperatures rise. The 
cyanobacteria that cause many of these outbreaks thrive under warm 
temperatures and outcompete many more beneficial groups of algae.
    One area where global warming is of particular and immediate 
concern is in the Arctic which is warming nearly four times faster than 
the global average. With present-day warming leading to major 
reductions in ice cover and changes in regional hydrography, 
biogeographic boundaries of a wide range of marine species at all 
trophic levels are being impacted, particularly in summer ice-free 
shallow waters. There is now clear evidence that multiple HAB toxins 
are accumulating on a recurrent basis within the Arctic food web at 
dangerous levels, and I firmly believe that the problems will worsen as 
waters warm. For example, as a result of these warming trends, 
historically dormant, deepwater cysts of one of the country's most 
dangerous HAB species are now germinating and blooming in the Arctic 
and sub-Arctic waters of Alaska, producing massive quantities of toxins 
that can move through virtually every level of the marine food web. As 
this occurs, human health and ecosystems are threatened in a region 
where traditional monitoring programs for toxins in shellfish, fish, or 
other animals are not feasible, and where the Alaskan native 
communities that rely on many different marine animals and plants for 
subsistence have no prior exposure to these toxins. The ecosystems that 
are critical to the survival of these communities are also threatened 
by HAB toxins, as these can lead to animal illnesses and deaths that 
raise food security issues as well. I am thus supportive of the 
amendments to HABHRCA that expand applied research to a wider range of 
impacts, such as subsistence impacts on rural and Tribal communities 
that rely on marine resources for their cultural, nutritional, and 
economic well-being.
Technological Developments

    Of necessity, research advancements have had to keep pace with the 
expanding needs and complexity of HAB and hypoxia problems. In recent 
years, research has led to the development of operational forecasts for 
specific HAB types in certain regions, such as the NOAA HAB forecasts 
in Lake Erie and the Gulf of Maine. An operational HAB forecast is like 
checking the weather to see what the water conditions are at a given 
moment, up to several days in advance. Similarly, research has led to 
the development of innovative and powerful HAB sensors that can be 
deployed autonomously at key sentinel locations and on a variety of 
fixed and mobile platforms. For example, one new instrument is a 
submersible microscope that takes hundreds of thousands of high-
resolution images of microscopic algal cells every day and, with the 
aid of artificial intelligence, software then identifies and counts the 
HAB species that are present. When deployed at key locations, these new 
technologies can provide states, Tribes, management agencies, and 
tourism, aquaculture and wild and farmed fisheries industries with HAB 
early warning. Equally importantly, these instruments can supply data 
that can be assimilated into HAB forecast models, making them more 
accurate, just as arrays of weather instruments supply data that 
improve the accuracy of weather forecasts.
    These HAB sensors are now being deployed throughout the country, 
but Alaska once again gives a clear example of the value of these new 
technologies. The communities mentioned above that rely on subsistence 
harvesting are scattered throughout the Alaskan Arctic, often in remote 
and rugged areas along the coast. Since these areas are far from the 
population centers that have infrastructure for toxin monitoring and 
measurement, new region-specific approaches are needed to provide early 
warning of blooms as they occur. Efforts are thus underway to deploy 
autonomous instruments in several locations so that the instruments can 
sample the water three times every hour, 24/7, with results 
communicated via the internet on a near real-time basis. Locals are 
being trained to operate the sensors, and generators and StarLink 
Internet connections established to keep the systems operating and 
communicating despite frequent power outages and limited bandwidth. 
This nascent Arctic HAB observing system is just one element of the 
critically important National HAB Observing Network (NHABON), which 
will allow states and industries to deploy and maintain sensors to meet 
their specific needs. I am thus supportive of the clear mandates 
introduced in these amendments for both sustaining operational forecast 
capabilities at the national level, and also for a National HAB 
Observing Network (NHABON).
HAB Control

    Many of the technologies and research programs described above are 
helping to prevent and mitigate HABs and their impacts, but one of the 
most challenging frontiers of HAB science is the development, scaling, 
and ultimate deployment of bloom control or suppression technologies. 
Once again, the diverse nature of HAB species and their impacts 
dictates that no single control strategy will work for all HABs, and 
therefore, many different approaches are under investigation, ranging 
from chemical algaecides to biocontrol using naturally occurring 
bacteria and viruses, and even to the dispersal of simple clay minerals 
that aggregate with each other and with HAB cells, sinking the cells 
and their toxins to bottom sediments. Research progress has been rapid 
in this area, but state and federal regulatory requirements are a major 
obstacle to transitioning technologies from the lab setting into the 
field when blooms are happening, even for small-scale field trials. 
NOAA's NCCOS program has taken a major step to help with these 
challenges by creating a National HAB Control Technologies Incubator 
that will provide one-time seed money to promising but risky 
technologies for proof of concept studies, as well as a clearinghouse 
of state and federal regulations to help investigators navigate that 
difficult landscape. I am highly supportive of the inclusion of the 
National HAB Control Technologies Incubator in this version of the 
HABHRCA bill to address this growing need.
Event Response

    Finally, when unexpected or unusual HAB events occur, there are 
immediate needs for short-term observations of where a bloom is, where 
it will go, and how severe it might be. This information is needed for 
assessments of impacts and formulation of management responses, as well 
as economic assistance. NOAA has maintained a modest HAB Event Response 
Program for over a decade, and it has been very effective, but given 
the growing diversity and scale of the problems described above, a much 
larger program is needed. The amount of money available for 
distribution to those requesting immediate assistance throughout the 
country is small, both in terms of the size of individual awards, but 
also in the number of awards that can be granted. This bill includes 
modifications to the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Events of National 
Significant provision that make it more effective for both short-term 
and long-term response, and creates a funding mechanism that will allow 
monies to be provided quickly to affected states.
Summary

    Let me close by saying that it is vitally important to reauthorize 
HABHRCA so that we can maintain the highly productive momentum that we 
have built up for addressing the growing problems of HABs and hypoxia. 
The U.S. has strong and highly respected programs, and from the 
perspective of one who has been an active investigator in the HAB field 
for over four decades, I have seen a clear acceleration of outcomes and 
benefits from the sustained research support covered by HABHRCA. 
Furthermore, these amendments clearly support the collaborative 
interagency effort that is needed to respond to and manage HABs and 
hypoxia across a diverse array of federal agencies and mandates. 
Together, these efforts are leading to greatly enhanced understanding 
of the mechanisms underlying HABs and hypoxia and their impacts, as 
well as the development and implementation of practical tools, 
technologies, and approaches that can assist state and federal managers 
and others on the front lines to protect public health, fisheries, 
tourism, and other economic and social interests at the national, 
state, and community levels.
    Thank you for the opportunity to offer information that is based on 
my own research and policy activities, as well as on the collective 
wisdom and creativity of numerous colleagues in the HAB and hypoxia 
fields. I would be pleased to answer any questions that you or other 
members may have.

                                 ______
                                 

   Questions Submitted for the Record to Dr. Donald Anderson, Senior 
  Scientist, Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

              Questions Submitted by RepresentativePeltola

    Question 1. As you think about your history researching HABs in the 
far north, have you seen changes in the range for HABs, the type of 
algae that is sensitive to blooms, or other notable changes in how 
you'd characterize HABs in Alaska?

    Answer. Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to 
summarize the situation with HABs in Alaska. First, in marine waters, 
the two most worrisome problems are caused by: 1) the dinoflagellate 
Alexandrium catenella, the organism that produces what are called 
paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) responsible for the human poisoning 
syndrome called paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and 2) multiple 
species in the diatom genius Pseudo-nitzschia that produce the toxin 
called domoic acid (DA) that causes amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP) 
in humans and domoic acid poisoning (DAP) in wildlife. Although Pseudo-
nitzschia and domoic acid have been detected in the water and in the 
tissues of marine mammals from southeastern Alaska through the Bering 
Sea and into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska, 
concentrations have been quite low and thus this HAB problem is not 
considered a major concern at this time.

    In contrast, Alexandrium and PSTs are a new and significant concern 
for the northern waters of Alaska. PSTs have long been known to be a 
serious problem in southeastern Alaska, including some of the Aleutian 
and Pribilof Islands, but there have only been occasional, academic 
reports of this species in waters north of Bering Strait, and there are 
no societal indications that local populations are accustomed to 
periodic incursions of toxic algae. However, within the last five 
years, studies by myself and others have shown that Alexandrium 
catenella has colonized the waters of the Bering Sea, Kotzebue Sound, 
and the Chukchi Sea, evidenced by huge accumulations of the dormant 
cysts of that species. These cysts allow Alexandrium to remain in 
bottom sediments during cold winters, germinating to initiate blooms 
when temperatures are warm and conditions favorable. Scientists 
attribute the recently discovered massive cyst accumulations in the 
Chukchi Sea to the transport of Alexandrium cells from warmer, Bering 
Sea waters in the south through Bering Strait, depositing cysts in the 
northern waters at the end of those blooms. Historically, bottom 
temperatures have been too cold to allow cyst germination. Repeated 
deposition events and minimal losses from germination can explain the 
build-up of the massive cyst seedbed, called a ``sleeping giant'' in 
one of my papers. But, in recent years, the surface and bottom waters 
of the Alaskan Arctic have warmed considerably, and now we believe the 
giant has awoken and cysts are germinating in Kotzebue Sound, the 
Chukchi Sea, and even Utqiagvik, bringing a second mechanism for bloom 
formation into play for that northern region, compounding the threat 
from the transported blooms. We now believe that not only are these 
locally generated rooms occurring more frequently as Arctic waters 
rapidly warm, but the transported blooms also may be larger and more 
frequent as well.
    PSTs are a problem in many other parts of the US, but the situation 
in northern Alaska is unique and worrisome. In other areas, the major 
vectors for transferring PSTs to humans and animals are shellfish such 
as clams, mussels, and crabs. In the Alaskan Arctic, however, most 
communities rely on subsistence harvesting of a wide range of marine 
resources for food and economic and social well-being. Unfortunately, 
many of these food sources can be contaminated with PSTs, and thus 
there is a public health threat to these communities, as well as a food 
security threat, since the toxins can also kill marine animals. The 
state of Alaska has never been able to monitor its entire coastline for 
HAB toxins, and thus tribes are facing the daunting challenge of 
setting up their own monitoring and toxin-testing programs. This 
challenge is amplified by the fact that a wide range of marine animals 
are consumed by local communities, and little is known about the manner 
in which PST's accumulate in these resources, which tissues are most 
dangerous, and how long the toxins might be retained by these animals. 
So, to give the short answer to this question, in marine waters, the 
species that is expanding and becoming much more of a threat is 
Alexandrium catenella, with at least one of the factors driving that 
expansion being global warming.
    HABs also occur in freshwater, typically caused by cyanobacteria or 
blue-green algae. These species also produce toxins that can threaten 
human and domestic animals, and wildlife. And, numerous papers have 
been written arguing that cyanobacteria will thrive under extremely 
warm future conditions, so problems with freshwater HABs are likely to 
not only continue, but to worsen as well. Alaska has these types of 
blooms, and some programs are underway, particularly in the Kotzbue 
Sound region, but the problem is certainly far more widespread than 
that in the state.
    To summarize, HAB problems have occurred for many years in 
southeastern Alaska, but in recent years, waters of the northern Bering 
Sea, Bering Strait, Kotzebue Sound, and the Chukchi Sea are all 
experiencing major outbreaks that pose significant threats to 
subsistence communities with no prior experience with these types of 
events. Concurrently, freshwater blooms are threatening other 
communities by making water supplies dangerous to drink, threatening 
human, animal and wildlife health.

    Question 2. What can be done to protect people in northern Alaska 
from toxic HABs?

    Answer. The Alaskan Arctic faces multiple challenges in monitoring 
and responding to HABs, some of which are unique to the region. Efforts 
to monitor and manage HABs in the region are hindered by a lack of 
information, limited infrastructure, and unique spatial challenges 
inherent to the Alaskan land- and seascapes. Foremost among the 
challenges is the need to provide coverage across large stretches of 
sparsely populated coastline. Transportation and communication 
infrastructure is limited and often impacted by harsh weather. As a 
first step towards enhanced communication, the Alaska Harmful Algal 
Bloom Network (AHAB: https://aoos.org/alaska-hab-network/) has been 
established to share information among a diverse group of scientists 
and interested stakeholders throughout Alaska. This is, however, a 
stakeholder-initiated effort currently funded by federal appropriations 
that are subject to funding uncertainties, and thus a more stable 
state-supported communications strategy and network might be needed to 
enhance and sustain HAB response.
    Scientists, managers, and agencies concerned with HAB events are 
primarily urban-based in Alaska, far from the northern and western 
coasts, so northern communities are largely reliant on themselves for 
awareness of a HAB event or human medical emergency. The lack of a 
robust infrastructure contributes to a high-risk situation, as recently 
demonstrated in 2020 with the first human HAB/PSP fatality since 2010 
in Alaska, and the first reported fatality in western Alaska (https://
content.govdelivery.com/accounts/AKDHSS/bulletins/295e317).
    An additional complication is that resource managers, community 
leaders, and regulatory officials must deal with multiple HAB toxins 
and algal species that occur in different seasons and locations, with 
blooms that are highly episodic and as yet, unpredictable. HAB toxins 
can also accumulate in, and affect, a diverse suite of marine species 
that are food sources for local communities. The State of Alaska tests 
all commercial shellfish harvest, but there is no state-run testing 
program for recreational and subsistence harvest. With no federally 
authorized commercial harvest of seafood in the Chukchi and Beaufort 
Seas, all seafood is harvested on a non-commercial basis and thus is 
not included in state-funded HAB monitoring.
    Given the geographic and logistical constraints of monitoring HABs 
in the Alaskan Arctic and the lack of a state-funded toxin testing 
program for non-commercial harvest, the marine ecosystem of the Alaskan 
Arctic, and the people that rely on it, are at risk. A monitoring 
approach to be considered would be the establishment of a local or 
regional monitoring program, perhaps modeled after the program run by 
the Sitka Tribe of southeastern Alaska. This effort is focused on the 
Gulf of Alaska and is limited to shellfish, but staff and facilities 
for HAB toxin analysis are in place to serve community concerns about 
HABs through shellfish toxin testing, paid for by the users. Currently 
there is no community-based HAB testing in the Alaskan Arctic, and if 
one is established, it is important to recognize that shellfish are 
only a minor and occasional component of diets in the region. Regional 
monitoring programs will thus need to develop protocols and 
capabilities to test seabirds, fish, and marine mammals as well. 
Ongoing research by university, agency, and other partners can provide 
information about the presence of HAB toxins in fish and wildlife but 
current sampling efforts are limited and many diagnostic tools used are 
not directly applicable to food safety assessments. Nevertheless, one 
clear need is for a regional laboratory capable of HAB toxin testing, 
similar to the one established by SEATOR.
    In addition, experience in other regions of the world suggests that 
a plankton screening program to detect HAB cells in coastal waters 
could also be a useful element in local or regional monitoring 
programs. Local monitoring using plankton nets and inexpensive 
microscopes is common in many areas subject to HABs, and training and 
funding to establish this capability should be a high priority activity 
in the Alaskan Arctic going forward. Ongoing programs by the Norton 
Sound Health Corporation are a good start in that direction. Given the 
many existing and growing challenges to coastal communities, however, 
citizen or volunteer plankton monitoring programs may not be 
sustainable in the region. The direct testing of seafood harvest should 
therefore be considered, though the manner in which this could be 
accomplished is unclear given limited transportation infrastructure and 
analytical capabilities. Again, this highlights the need for a regional 
toxin testing laboratory.
    With respect to ecosystem health and food security, potential 
impacts from STXs and DA to most marine wildlife in the Alaskan Arctic 
are unknown and thus there is, as yet, no firm guidance to offer for 
the safety of coastal communities. Ongoing grant-funded research 
programs will soon provide data of this type, and it will be critical 
to include effective communication and outreach plans to provide 
coastal communities the data and implications as they become available. 
I note that the NOAA ECOHAB program has changed its programmatic goals 
to include frequent reference to subsistence harvesting, so hopefully 
this knowledge deficit will soon be addressed.
    Yet another concern is that the marine ecosystems of the Alaskan 
Arctic are shared with the Russian Federation, and transboundary 
communications can be logistically and bureaucratically challenging. It 
is not only imperative but ethically responsible for collaboration and/
or communication on research and monitoring efforts to protect shared 
wildlife resources and human health.
    Recent technological advances in HAB monitoring may also provide 
important monitoring tools for the region. Given frequent cloud cover 
and the lack of HABs of sufficient density to be visible from space, 
traditional satellite remote sensing has limited utility in the Arctic. 
Of more value are new sensors capable of detecting and quantifying HAB 
cells and toxins in situ. A promising development in this regard is the 
advent of ocean observing systems (OOSs)--arrays of moored and mobile 
instruments that can collect and transmit data continuously from remote 
locations to shore-based scientists and managers. Instruments capable 
of measuring HAB cells and/or toxins already exist, such as the Imaging 
Flow Cytobot (IFCB), a high-speed, submersible microscope that can 
autonomously operate 24/7 and take hundreds of thousands of images of 
phytoplankton daily. Artificial intelligence algorithms then identify 
and enumerate algal species such as the major HAB taxa described here, 
providing near-real time data on HAB threats . These instruments can be 
deployed in buildings or on docks or piers, or even on fishing or 
research vessels for analysis of underway samples. Given the 
demonstrated northward transport of Alexandrium blooms through the 
Bering Strait and into the Chukchi Sea, IFCB deployments in Bering 
Strait and in Kotzebue Sound could provide valuable data on incoming 
HABs, for example. One promising recent development is the purchase of 
an IFCB by AOOS, the Alaska Ocean Observing System with funding 
provided by NOAA's National Center for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) 
and the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) through the new NHABON 
program (National HAB observing Network). The intention is to train a 
community member on Little Diomede in the routine operation of this 
instrument, with technical support provided by experienced users on the 
mainland. This is only a single instrument, however, and a minimum of 
two or three more could easily be justified for Alaskan Arctic waters 
as part of an Arctic HAB observing system funded through NHABON.
    What I am describing here is a combination of community-based, low-
technology water sampling with more technically advanced 
instrumentation and laboratory capabilities. Many other regions of the 
world face recurrent HABs that contaminate seafood products and affect 
ecosystem health, yet it has proven possible to protect human health 
and sustain fisheries and other ecosystem services through informed 
management actions. The unique nature of the Alaskan Arctic, the lack 
of scientific understanding of HAB impacts on marine wildlife, and the 
reliance of coastal populations on non-commercial harvesting for 
nutritional, cultural, and economic well-being poses new and 
significant challenges that need to be immediately addressed as this 
region continues to warm and the potential impacts from HABs expand.

                                 ______
                                 

    Mr. Bentz. Thank you, Dr. Anderson.
    I now recognize Mr. Lum for 5 minutes.

   STATEMENT OF MIKE LUM, FUNDRAISING AND EVENT COORDINATOR, 
       CAPTAIN ROLLO'S KIDS AT SEA, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

    Mr. Lum. Chairman Bentz, Ranking Member Huffman, and 
members of the Committee, on behalf of Friends of Rollo, a 
California-based non-profit, I am honored to represent Captain 
Rollo Kids at Sea and speak to my support of H.R. 3925, the 
Youth Coastal Fishing Program Act.
    I am Mike Lum, I am Fundraising Event Coordinator for the 
organization. I also manage the Southwest Region for Morton and 
Associates, a sales agency representing fishing marine outdoor 
brands throughout the 13 Western states. In addition, I sit on 
the board of the Coastal Conservation Association of 
California, and I am an active member of the American Sport 
Fishing Association.
    In 1999, in honor of Captain Rollo Heyn, a young sport 
fishing captain that passed away, Friends of Rollo was founded 
with a goal of providing as many children as possible the 
opportunity to experience their first fishing trip. With a 
priority placed on underserved communities, we typically grant 
60 to 100 trips per year, each boat carrying 30 to 50 children. 
Recent increases in fuel and trip costs have created a dire 
need for additional funding to maintain our current levels. 
Demand has never been higher, and the need never stronger. The 
number of trips are only limited by the available funds that we 
raise each year. The organization, since its founding in 1999, 
has benefited over 140,000 children.
    I am a prime example of life-changing potential that being 
introduced to the ocean at a young age can have. My father 
passed away when I was 8 years old. With no family support, my 
mother had to start working and when not in school I was left 
to my own. And it didn't take long before a boy with very 
little supervision was heading down the wrong path.
    Thankfully, just before turning 10 years old, a family 
moved in across the street with a young father that loved to 
fish. He took me under his wing, took me on local sport fishing 
boats, and taught me the basics. I remember the very first trip 
vividly. I was so taken by the experience, the thought of 
getting into trouble or not doing well in school was no longer 
an option. He made it very clear that these fishing trips would 
stop if I didn't behave.
    Going fishing and being on the ocean was the most important 
thing in my life, and as a direct result of that experience, my 
life has been spent as a passionate angler and never working 
outside of the fishing, boating, and outdoor industries. I 
assure you, it was that first day on the water that changed my 
life and provided me a very clear path to my career and a 
lifetime enjoyment of being on the ocean.
    Most of the youth served by Captain Rollo's live within 40 
miles of the coast, yet many have never seen the ocean. Giving 
children an introduction to the sea cannot be replicated with 
books and videos. The ocean is vast and full of mystery. Many 
young people, given the opportunity to be on a boat for the 
first time, gain an understanding and a curiosity that stays 
with them forever. Seeing dolphin playing under the bow wake 
just out of reach is something most never get a chance to 
experience, and those that do don't forget.
    Viewing starfish and crabs on the rocks within the marina, 
the sea lions, dolphin, whales offshore, the shorebirds hunting 
for their next meal are all fascinating. Children are 
captivated by watching the live sardines in the bait tank, and 
learning how to use a rod and reel, catching their first fish. 
These trips can be life-changing for many, and they create 
lifelong memories for all. There are adults working in the 
sport fishing and marine trades today that were introduced to 
their first ocean trip on a Captain Rollo trip.
    We would like to provide many more young people the 
opportunity to this program. The systems work well and require 
no additional cost or funding to expand. We can double or 
triple the number of trips without adding any operational 
expenses. One hundred percent of additional funding will be 
used to increase the number of kids benefiting.
    I want to thank Representatives Salazar and Kamlager-Dove 
for authoring the Youth Coastal Fishing Program Act, which 
would create a $2 million grant program within NOAA for 
projects that take children fishing in the ocean and on the 
Great Lakes, with a priority given to the underserved 
communities.
    For the programs around the country like ours, where 
increased funding provides proportional increases in the number 
of children involved, this bill will allow us to scale up our 
efforts and directly benefit more children. Thank you for 
allowing me the opportunity to share how the Captain Rollo's 
Kids at Sea Program is improving the lives of thousands of 
children each year, with many more waiting.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Lum follows:]
Prepared Statement of Mike Lum, Fundraising Event Coordinator, Captain 
                      Rollo's Kids at Sea Program
                              on H.R. 3925

    Chairman Bentz, Ranking Member Huffman and Members of the 
Committee, on behalf of Friends of Rollo, a California based non-profit 
organization, I am honored to represent Captain Rollo's Kids at Sea, a 
coastal youth fishing program in California before the Subcommittee on 
Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, and speak to my support of H.R. 3925, 
the Youth Coastal Fishing Program Act. I am Mike Lum, Fundraising Event 
Coordinator for the organization.
    I also manage the southwest region for Morton & Associates, a sales 
agency representing fishing, marine and outdoor products in the 
thirteen Western States. In addition, I sit on the Executive Board of 
the Coastal Conservation Association of California, I am an active 
member of the American Sportfishing Association and in my spare time, 
love to go fishing.
    California is home to the largest sportfishing fleet and most 
landings in the nation. Over 200 sportfishing boats, operating year 
around from dozens of landings from San Diego to the Francisco Bay 
area. Many of these boats carry up to 75 anglers per trip. We also have 
the largest and most experienced live bait haulers as our nearshore 
waters are teeming with baitfish that attract fish and provide ample 
access to live bait. The California coast drops off rapidly into the 
Pacific Ocean, creating abundant offshore fishing and whale watching 
opportunities within a short distance from shore. This is ideal for 
half-day excursions departing daily. Simply put, California is perfect 
for youth fishing programs.
Background information about Friends of Rollo, Captain Rollo's Kids at 
        Sea Program

    In 1999, in honor of a Captain James ``Rollo'' Heyn, a popular 
Sportfishing captain that had just passed away, the 501c3 Non-Profit 
organization, Friends of Rollo was founded. The goal being to allow as 
many kids as possible the opportunity to experience their first ocean 
fishing and marine life awareness trip. With a priority placed on 
underserved communities, the organization typically charters sixty to 
one hundred trips per year in addition to a variety of pier and on-land 
kids fishing events. Each trip carries 30-50 kids. The cost of the 
boat, fishing tackle, hot lunch and crew are paid by Friends of Rollo. 
The recent, sky rocketing increases in fuel and trip costs have created 
a need for additional funding to maintain current trip levels. Demand 
has never been higher and the need never stronger. The number of trips 
granted are only limited by the available funds raised. The 
organization has benefited over 140,000 kids since it was founded.
    Trips are granted to as many groups of children as the budget 
allows for. Funding is largely grassroots in nature with annual 
raffles, fishing tournaments, public events and individual donations 
making up the bulk of the financial resources.
    Schools, scouts, boys and girls clubs, church groups, at-risk youth 
facilities, children's homes, neighborhood youth groups, etc. request 
trips with a simple online application. The Captain Rollo's Kids at Sea 
trip coordinator works with each group to arrange a date, select a 
landing, appropriately sized boat, number of kids, etc. Once the 
details are worked out, the boat is reserved for them. It is that easy.
The Purpose and Benefits of Youth Trips at Sea

    For those of us that spend much of our spare time raising money so 
that these kid's trips are possible, our investment of time and energy 
is due to our understanding of the importance. We see, first-hand how 
the kids react to the experience and how they benefit, both in the 
short and long term. It is not a matter of if we want to spend our 
weekends selling raffle tickets, soliciting donations, running fishing 
tournaments, hosting barbeques, etc., we simply must do it, it's not a 
choice. If not for the Rollo program, who would provide this 
opportunity to all these kids? What we raise is never enough to meet 
the demand, but it is sizable and benefits thousands of children each 
year.
    Dr. Chris Minnick, a loyal supporter of the Captain Rollo's Kids at 
Sea, spent 50 years as a child psychiatrist. He recently shared with me 
his observations and expertise about the benefits of youth fishing.
    Dr. Minnick grew up in a family that had little time for him. When 
not in school, he spent his early childhood mainly on his own, in what 
was then, a rural Phoenix, Arizona. He discovered the allure of fishing 
by watching small fish swimming in the irrigation ditches and canals 
where he used to play. Fortunately for Chris, his family gardener loved 
to fish and once he realized Chris was interested, was happy to teach 
him how to catch them. This passion to go fishing was sparked when he 
was just 7 or 8 years old. His family relocated to Los Angeles when he 
was 13 and he lost touch with his fishing mentor. However, he brought 
his love of fishing and being outdoors with him. It wasn't long before 
he discovered the Santa Monica Pier and expanded his fishing prowess to 
saltwater species. Today, Dr. Minnick is 78 years old. His love and 
respect for nature and the great outdoors have only grown stronger over 
the years.
    He has seen first-hand what introducing children to the joy of 
fishing and developing an appreciation of our marine resources does to 
benefit kids. In preparation for this testimony, I asked him to 
summarize his thoughts about the subject. His letter is included but 
here is part of what he says.

    ``As a child psychiatrist I have seen firsthand the importance of 
introducing children, ideally before the turmoil of puberty and 
adolescence, to activities that can bring focus, community, and passion 
to their life. Many children grow up in environments that make them 
vulnerable to creating problematic social ties with peers in gangs. 
They are at risk to bind emotional distress with drugs.

    Caring adults who show an interest in these children can have a 
profoundly positive influence. As happened with me and our gardener, 
they can be redirected to a focus on something that they would not even 
know exists without programs like Rollo's Kids, that take kids fishing. 
Having that introduction involve caring adult figures is a profoundly 
important element in the success of such activities.

    I am now 78 years old. I was on various fishing adventures 123 days 
last year. My wife is grandmothering with a similar passion. My 
grandkids are already involved with fishing and I hope it can give them 
even a tenth of the happiness and meaning it has provided to my life.''

    I am a prime example of Dr. Minnick's analysis of the life-changing 
potential that being introduced to the outdoors at a young age can 
have. No one can appreciate or attest to the importance of this 
organization more than me. My father died when I was 8 years old. With 
no siblings and no family support, my mother had to go to work to 
provide for us. I was left on my own much of the time and it didn't 
take long before a young boy without much supervision was heading down 
the wrong path. As good fate would have it, just before my 10th 
birthday, a family moved into the house across the street and the young 
father, freshly out of the Navy, was a fisherman that loved to be on 
the ocean. His two sons were infants, so he was glad to have someone to 
teach about the ocean and fishing. He had also lost his dad when he was 
young and that created a special bond that exists to this day. He took 
me offshore on local fishing boats and showed me how everything was 
done. I loved it. I remember the first trip very vividly. I was so 
taken by the experience, the thought of getting into trouble or not 
doing good in school wasn't an option. It was made clear that the 
fishing trips would stop if I didn't behave. Going fishing and being on 
or near the ocean was the most important thing in my life. As a direct 
result of that experience, my life has been spent being a passionate 
angler and never working outside of the fishing, boating, outdoor 
industry. Being on the ocean is still very important to me and I still 
enjoy watching the dolphin playing alongside the boat. I assure you; it 
was that first day on a fishing boat that changed my life and provided 
me a career and a lifetime of enjoyment.
    Another example of a professional that recognizes the importance of 
taking kids fishing is public school teacher, Mr. Chris Stanley. A 
teacher in the San Diego area, he has taken his 5th grade class on 
Captain Rollo's Kids at Sea trips for 17 consecutive years. This annual 
trip became so well known that children in lower grades would be 
looking forward to it for years before entering 5th grade. They 
couldn't wait to go fishing. However, not all the kids in the class got 
to go. Good grades and proper behavior were required throughout the 
school year to be eligible for the trip. Mr. Stanley's Captain Rollo 
Kids at Sea trips become so successful that teachers from other schools 
began requesting trips for their classes. Where else could an 
opportunity like this exist? Mr. Stanley is now teaching in a community 
day school where students require additional emotional support and 
positive outlets. Of course, he continues to utilize trips from Captain 
Rollo Kids at Sea Program. I have included his letter that explains his 
positive experiences with his classes and the kids being on the ocean. 
Mr. Stanley is an exceptional human being that dedicates his life to 
his students. When not teaching or working with troubled youths, he is 
often fishing. He and his entire family work at the numerous Captain 
Rollo fundraising events each year to help raise the money necessary to 
continue helping the kids.
    Mr. Doug Brown with the Kappa Alpha PSI Men's Group is granted 
multiple trips each year by Friends of Rollo. These young people attend 
schools such as Crenshaw High School, Dorsey High School, Audubon 
Middle School, Washington Prep High School, Boys Academic Leadership 
Academy, Culver City Middle School, Morningside High School, Inglewood 
High School and John Burrows Middle School. These are inner city kids 
that benefit from the Captain Rollo Kids at Sea program year after 
year. His letter is attached.
    Marcus Farrow with Menformation Project, a youth mentoring program 
in Los Angeles knows what these trips accomplish. We have granted a 
fishing trip each year for them over the last 4 years. These young 
people would not get this experience without Friends of Rollo. 
Menformation Project's mission is to the point. . . To help our boys 
succeed in school and stay out of jail!
    Facilities that care for children that have lost their parents due 
to cartel and drug related violence have also been granted Rollo, Kids 
at Sea trips. Any group that has kids in need are encouraged to apply.
    The benefits of exposing young people the experience of being on a 
boat at sea cannot be overstated. Seeing starfish, mussels, and crabs 
on the rocks within the marina, the sea lions, dolphin, whales and 
variety of birds hunting for their next meal are things most have never 
seen. It all combines with the smells, ocean mist and movement of the 
boat as the crew makes everything work properly. Children are 
captivated watching the live sardines and anchovy in the bait tank, 
learning how to use a rod and reel and catching their first fish. These 
trips can be life changing for many and create lifelong memories for 
all. There are adults working careers in the sportfishing industry 
today that were introduced to the ocean on a Rollo trip. Others have 
grown up and become marine biologist and involved in research and ocean 
policy management. They are passionate about protecting our marine 
resources and others will be taking their own kids fishing someday.
Never Actually Seen the Ocean

    Most of the kids served by these trips live within 40 miles of the 
coast yet it is regularly reported that many of them have never seen 
the ocean in person before being invited on a Captain Rollo's trip.
    Giving children a hands-on introduction to the ocean cannot be 
replicated with books or videos. The excitement of seeing dolphin 
playing and swimming near the boat is not something that can be 
described. The thrill of watching a pelican or cormorant dive into the 
sea from high above and come up with a meal cannot be explained. The 
ocean is vast and full of mystery. Many children given the opportunity 
to be on a boat for the first time, gain an understanding and natural 
curiosity that stays with them forever.
No Access to the Ocean

    Most of our world is covered by water. Except for those that own a 
boat, or have the resources to pay for a trip, there is no access to 
the ocean. Most adults in our country have never been on a boat 
offshore. The chances of children at any age experiencing the adventure 
is extremely limited. We make it happen.
The Stage is Set

    California offers a unique opportunity with the number of 
sportfishing and whale watching boats, landings and with fish and 
marine life so close to shore. We would like to provide many more 
children the opportunity this program offers. The system works well and 
requires no additional cost, staff or time to ramp up. We can double, 
triple or quadruple the number of trips without changing anything. 100% 
of additional funding will be used to increase the number of kids 
benefiting.
    I want to thank Reps. Salazar and Kamlager-Dove for authoring the 
Youth Coastal Fishing Program Act. I also want to thank Members of this 
Subcommittee for co-sponsoring the bill, including Reps. Huffman, 
Wittman, Peltola, Levin, Case and Dingell.
    The bill would create a $2 million grant program within the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for projects 
that take children fishing in the ocean or Great Lakes, with priority 
given to projects that serve underserved communities. While similar 
grant programs exist within other federal land management agencies--
such as the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 
U.S. Forest Service--NOAA has no such program. This bill would bring 
NOAA in line with other federal management agencies and ensure that 
equal access to nature can be enjoyed by all children. For the numerous 
programs around the country like ours where increased funding provides 
proportional increases in the number of children we can take on trips, 
this bill will directly benefit youth across the nation's coasts. A 
relatively small amount of federal funding, matched many times over by 
private sources, will create meaningful and lasting benefits to our 
nation's youth.
    In addition to its over 30 co-sponsors, the Youth Coastal Fishing 
Program Act is supported by dozens of recreational fishing, 
conservation, and environmental education organizations. I urge the 
Committee to swiftly pass this bill and help ensure its enactment this 
session on Congress.
    Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share how the Captain 
Rollo's Kids at Sea program is improving the lives of thousands of 
children but many more are waiting.

                                 *****

The following documents were submitted as supplements to Mr. Lum's 
testimony.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


                                 __
                                 

    Mr. Bentz. Thank you. I thank the witnesses for their 
testimony, and will now recognize Members for 5 minutes each 
for questions.
    Representative Carl, you are recognized.
    Mr. Carl. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Raines, it is truly an honor to have you here today. 
You are probably the most recognized name on the Gulf Coast, 
and we don't want you involved in politics, by the way, but we 
will keep you at the University of South Alabama. We are very 
proud of the work you have done there.
    Most of you that don't know, he has actually helped 
discover the last slave ship, and we are in the process now of 
trying to retrieve that and actually build a museum around the 
slave ship to tell the story. So, he is a Renaissance man. What 
can I say?
    Your dedication has successfully brought attention to the 
ancient cypress forest in the Gulf of Mexico. We have both 
highlighted the economic importance of preserving the 
underwater treasure for local fishermen and tourists. Can you 
speak a little more on why the protection of the underwater 
forest again, potentially, the exploration is so important?
    Mr. Raines. Thank you, Representative Carl. Yes. The 
forest, digging up these trees simply to make furniture or 
electric guitars out of them would be akin to digging up the 
mud holes of Yellowstone National Park because you found there 
was some economic benefit in them.
    The forest, where it is, is a piece of our landscape that 
no one has ever imagined seeing. And it is there now, so we can 
reap benefits, both scientifically from learning about the past 
climate, but also exciting the minds of anyone who visits it, 
who hears about it, who sees it. It is one of those rare 
moments where it captures people's attention in a way that 
makes them instantly understand what climate change means and 
how the climate has changed previously.
    My video started partway through so you all didn't get to 
see the ancient shoreline, where it was back then, but it was 
another 40 or 50 miles off the Gulf Coast. So, I have been 
speaking about the forest and showing this documentary and the 
way people light up when they hear about it, you see the 
scientific connections happening in real time.
    And I am also a charter captain. All of these bills here 
touch on my livelihood in various ways.
    This interaction with nature is one of the greatest things 
about America. You go to other countries and you can't do that. 
And part of that is the way we have protected it going back 200 
years, the beginning of our national parks and all of that kind 
of thing. And that is the way the underwater forest should be 
viewed. It should be protected like a national park, and that 
is what the National Marine Sanctuary Program does.
    The reason we are here in Congress doing this, rather than 
going through the traditional national marine sanctuary 
process, is because when I presented this to the National 
Marine Sanctuary office in Galveston they said, ``You should 
probably go through Congress for this,'' because the state of 
Alabama wanted the site to be open so people could use it so 
they could fish there. You saw how many fish are there, so they 
could dive there, and they could anchor their boats there. 
Working with the state, the way we came about it was coming 
through Congress to design the bill so that it would serve all 
the interests of those affected.
    Right now, there are no laws, period, that protect the 
forest. The only reason the furniture companies haven't been 
able to harvest the wood is because they don't know where it 
is.
    After we put the bill up in Congress, I actually got a 
phone call from a man who had been pestering me for the 
coordinates for several years saying, ``Well, I don't need the 
coordinates now. They are in the bill.'' Well, I told him I 
helped draft that portion of the bill, and we designed an area 
about 4 miles wide. And the forest is a smaller area than that. 
Good luck finding it.
    The idea that it would be exploited commercially is 
something, you have seen a few pictures of it. I just can't 
imagine we would let that happen for both what it means to the 
public to be able to see it and know it exists, and to science. 
It is a unique climate record. And the idea that we have 
actually found insects out there now, we are really getting 
into Jurassic Park territory, so we can bring some of these 
creatures back to life.
    But it is a unique destination, and I hope that you all 
will preserve it.
    Mr. Carl. Well, you have done an incredible job protecting 
it, because myself and a mutual friend of ours, Sean Sullivan, 
we both have been trying to get the coordinates because we want 
to fish it, to be quite honest.
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. Carl. Real quickly, Mr. Lum, I appreciate what you are 
doing, sir. I helped secure a few hundred acres in south Mobile 
County that has virgin timber on it, and what I want to do is 
bring those kids out of the inner city that don't get a chance 
to see a tree other than what is downtown, and teach them how 
to identify those trees as they walk around. And maybe, just 
maybe, we can flip that positive switch in them and have a 
horticulture show back up in 6 or 7 years, versus another 
statistic in a crime scene. So, thank you for your work and 
your efforts. Thank you, sir.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield my time.
    Mr. Bentz. Thank you.
    Ranking Member Huffman, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Huffman. [Inaudible.]
    Mr. Bentz. Sure, certainly.
    Mr. Courtney. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, 
Ranking Member Huffman. And it is good to see my colleague from 
Alabama, Mr. Carl, here today, who used to be a colleague on 
the Armed Services Committee, but he entered the cloistered 
life of the Appropriations Committee.
    Mr. Carl. The dark side.
    Mr. Courtney. That is right. Again, I just wanted to follow 
up Mr. LaLota's comments this morning.
    I am the lead Democratic sponsor on the Long Island Sound 
Restoration and Stewardship Reauthorization Act. And, again, I 
listened to his testimony earlier, and I am not going to 
belabor it.
    And I just ask for the record that my written remarks be 
entered.
    Mr. Bentz. Without objection.

    [The prepared statement of Mr. Courtney follows:]
   Prepared Statement of the Hon. Joe Courtney, a Representative in 
                 Congress from the State of Connecticut

    Thank you, Chairman Bentz and Ranking Member Huffman, for allowing 
me to waive on to the Subcommittee for this hearing. I appreciate the 
Subcommittee considering these four important water bills, particularly 
H.R. 5441, the ``Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship 
Reauthorization Act of 2023'', which I introduced along with my Long 
Island Sound Caucus co-chair Nick LaLota from New York.

    This time-sensitive, bipartisan bill would reauthorize the Long 
Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Act, which expired at the end 
of the 2023 fiscal year. Congress must reauthorize this important 
program as soon as possible to ensure that federal funds can continue 
to preserve and protect this ecological resource and economic asset.

    Long Island Sound is a national treasure--more than 20 million 
citizens live within an hour drive of its shores, and the Sound 
contributes over $9.4 billion annually to the regional economy from 
commercial and recreational fishing, ecotourism, and other water 
dependent businesses. Residents across the CT and NY also rely on the 
Sound for recreational opportunities, including fishing, sailing, and 
swimming.

    In 1985, Congress created the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) to 
identify and address the major environmental problems affecting the 
Long Island Sound. The Study was authorized at $40 million annually 
through the Long Island Sound Restoration Act. Through the Long Island 
Sound Study, a bi-state Comprehensive Management Plan has been 
developed and is being implemented. In 2006 Congress also passed the 
Long Island Sound Stewardship Act, which provided federal dollars for 
projects to restore the coastal habitat to help revitalize the wildlife 
population, coastal wetlands, and plant life. These two programs were 
combined and reauthorized in 2018 through the Long Island Sound 
Restoration and Stewardship Act.

    Federal investment in the Long Island Sound has helped federal, 
state, and local agencies as well as regional and local stakeholders to 
coordinate and fund the natural resource and watershed management 
activities around Long Island Sound.

    Thanks to federal funding, the amount of nitrogen entering the Long 
Island Sound from sewage treatment plants have been reduced by 70.3% 
compared to the 1990s, hypoxic conditions have been reduced by 58% 
compared to the 1990s, over 2,239 acres of coastal habitat have been 
restored, and 570 conservation projects have been funded.

    Congress on a bipartisan basis recognizes the importance of this 
funding. In FY23, Long Island Sound received $40 million, the largest 
funding level in the history of the program. The House and Senate have 
also both included $40 million for Long Island Sound in their FY 2024 
appropriations bills.

    To ensure that Congress can continue to provide this critical 
funding for Long Island Sound, we must move quickly and pass the Long 
Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Reauthorization Act--a 
straightforward 5-year reauthorization at $65 million, the current 
authorization level.

                                 ______
                                 

    Mr. Courtney. Thank you. And, again, just to set the stage 
a little bit in terms of Connecticut's interest in this 
legislation, I represent the 2nd Congressional District, whose 
coastline extends basically from the Connecticut River to the 
Rhode Island border. It is the largest part of Long Island 
Sound in terms of Members of Congress. But also, Congresswoman 
Rosa DeLauro is to the west of me and through New Haven County. 
And then further to the west is Congressman Jim Himes, who 
represents Fairfield County. And they are enthusiastic 
supporters of this legislation.
    Again, there has been amazing progress, as Nick pointed out 
in his comments. This program was started back in 1985. It was 
pretty meager funding. But with Rosa's help, particularly, we 
have really gotten serious about efforts to clean up the Sound. 
It is an amazing body of water, as has been said. A lot of 
stakeholders of incredible variety in terms of the maritime 
industry. It is the largest operating military installation in 
New England with the Groton Submarine Base, which is in my 
district, and they all have to figure out a way to co-exist, to 
make sure that we protect the biodiversity of Long Island 
Sound.
    Again, at the base, by the way, that was a Superfund site 
up until recently. It was established back in the late 1860s, 
and they had been dumping coal ash and God knows what else. And 
they have almost completely finished the cleanup of the base, 
and it is no longer a problem in terms of the water quality and 
the marine life of Long Island Sound.
    Mr. Pickerell, I heard some of your testimony, as well. 
Thank you for being here. And one last point is that if you 
look at New England, it is basically one big watershed that 
sort of feeds into Long Island Sound. And, obviously, that has 
been a big focus of the restoration. Maybe you could sort of 
comment in terms of other examples of the work that has been 
done because of this program.
    Mr. Pickerell. Sure, thank you.
    There are a myriad of projects that are going on, 
obviously. In my written testimony, there are links to those 
reports that go over some of those in detail.
    But some of the stuff we have been doing which is nice is a 
bi-state effort in terms of water quality monitoring, which I 
mentioned, which is a community-based program, stakeholder-
driven, and it is wonderful because it involves folks at UConn, 
us at Cornell on the island. We do different water bodies, so 
that is wonderful.
    The work with lobster pots is going on. Lobster pot removal 
is going on, on both sides of the Sound. We did some, I 
believe, initially, with Mystic Aquarium was one of the first, 
but we started in 2010 removing lobster traps from the Sound. 
We have done mostly the central spine. We look to the east now, 
as well. That is great, because it is a collaborative effort 
with the local towns in Suffolk County on our side.
    As you well know, Connecticut and states north of that, six 
states in total, are most of the watershed. So, a lot of the 
effort goes into that watershed all the way up to the Canadian 
border. So, the fact that they are looking at things like 
stormwater inputs, non-point source pollution, which are all 
impacting water quality in the Sound, is very important. So, 
that is going on, and that is with the municipalities, with the 
counties, with the states.
    Things like shellfish restoration, there is a lot of 
interest on both sides. I think, for good or bad, Connecticut 
is ahead of New York in terms of that. There is more of a sense 
of supporting shellfish restoration as well as shellfish 
aquaculture. And that is one thing I really wanted to 
highlight, is that it is, with regard to economic development, 
the most potential is in aquaculture, whether it is seaweed, 
kelp, or the oysters, which used to be a very historic fishery 
in Long Island Sound.
    So, to the extent that we can try to support those small 
businesses that are running in the Sound there, it is a green 
industry, they are removing carbon, they are removing nitrogen. 
It is economic development. The oysters are wonderful that come 
out of the Sound, so we want to look at that, as well.
    Mr. Courtney. Almost as good as California's.
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. Pickerell. Yes.
    Mr. Courtney. Well, I think I am running out of time. But 
again, thank you for being here and your testimony.
    I want to thank again Congressman LaLota. We have worked 
together on this bill, and it is very bipartisan, two states, 
bicameral. All good.
    With that, I yield back.
    Mr. Huffman. A two-state solution?
    Mr. Courtney. That is right.
    Mr. Bentz. Thank you.
    Mr. Graves, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Graves. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I want to thank you all for being here today, I appreciate 
your testimony.
    Congressman Carl introduced legislation on amending the 
National Marine Sanctuary Act, and tries to protect the 
underwater forest in the Gulf of Mexico. I am from Louisiana 
and represent the coastal area, as well, and I am a huge fan of 
the abundant ecological productivity that occurs as a result of 
the unique conditions of the Gulf of Mexico. Ninety percent of 
the freshwater inputs to the Gulf come as a result of waterways 
into the Gulf from Louisiana, and again creates a really 
productive estuary, and it creates an opportunity for multiple 
uses of the Gulf of Mexico.
    And I thought that Congressman Carl did a great job in 
trying to strike that balance and ensuring Mr. Raines that 
fishing opportunities and others continue. But it is not just 
about recreational commercial fishing, it is energy production 
and other things.
    Mr. Scholz, do you see anything in the way that Congressman 
Carl struck the balance in his legislation that would prevent 
this from being implemented and ensuring this continued balance 
in multiple uses of the Gulf?
    Mr. Scholz. Thank you for the question. No, the legislation 
is designating. We have had a number of sanctuaries that have 
been designated directly through legislation, 3 of the 15 we 
currently have, and there is nothing inconsistent. In fact, it 
just serves as the boundary conditions for what we would have 
to develop as a management plan.
    Mr. Graves. Great, thank you very much.
    Mr. Lum, in looking at the other legislation that has been 
introduced by Congressman Salazar in coastal fishing, I noted 
in your testimony you referred to Dr. Minnick, a child 
psychologist, that talked about the benefits of fishing. I know 
that Mr. Huffman often talks about how I was an altar boy 
growing up and a perfect kid, which is true, certainly, but I 
will say there is something about being stuck within the 
gunwales of the boat that prevent kids from getting in a whole 
lot of trouble sometimes. And I am just curious if you could 
expand upon some of the discussions you have had with Dr. 
Minnick with the benefits of promoting fishing for kids.
    Mr. Lum. Thank you. We have been doing this now for 24 
years, our organization alone. And in all of those years, we 
have had countless examples of children that otherwise would be 
in deep trouble if it weren't for exposure to fishing, being on 
the ocean for the first time, and then, of course, having 
exposure to the marine life, being exposed to marine life 
mammals that they get to see on these fishing trips.
    We have found that the fishing aspect of it is all 
important and the reason that they really want to go. The 
learning experience they get from it really is a life-changing 
experience for many, many of these children.
    The groups that we help report back to us that not only as 
an incentive to help their children as they work towards a 
trip, we have a school teacher in San Diego that for 17 
consecutive years has taken a fifth grade class out. And it is 
now to the point where the entire school awaits for the fifth 
grade so that they can go out and go on this fishing trip. But 
it is not like everybody gets to go. There are incentives, 
there are rules, they work towards it. It is a culture now 
within the school, so much so that some of the other schools 
are now asking for similar trips.
    So, there is no question that exposing children at a young 
age to an opportunity to be on the ocean is very beneficial and 
does keep them out of trouble.
    Mr. Graves. Thank you. Dr. Anderson, off the Gulf Coast of 
Louisiana we have, as you know, the largest dead zone on the 
continent as a result of the largest watershed in the continent 
draining two-thirds of the United States. Can you talk a little 
bit about some of the partnerships and the benefits to overall 
science as a result of the things like the Gulf mapping hypoxia 
and efforts along those lines?
    Dr. Anderson. Sure, and thank you.
    Hypoxia is a very challenging problem because the actual 
dead zone that you are referring to is out in the Gulf of 
Mexico, but the causes stretch all the way up into Minnesota 
and the entire stretch of the Mississippi. So, you obviously 
need state and Federal partnerships.
    Mr. Graves. And Canada, by the way.
    Dr. Anderson. And Canada as well, yes. I stand corrected.
    And it is a problem that you have also out on the West 
Coast of the country, but a very different kind of a mechanism 
where, instead of large rivers entering and dumping all this 
material in, it is deep water, low oxygen. And, again, that 
requires partnerships with other agencies and states, as well.
    I am running out of time here, but you are correct. It is a 
very broad Federal and state problem.
    Mr. Graves. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
    Mr. Raines, I had a couple of questions for you, but I will 
submit those for the record.
    I certainly appreciate you and Mr. Pickerell being here, 
and I yield back.
    Mr. Bentz. Thank you.
    We will try again, Ranking Member Huffman, you are 
recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Huffman. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. This is an excellent 
panel. I want to thank all of you.
    Mr. Raines, I could spend all my time and a lot more 
talking to you about this amazing underwater forest. Let me 
just thank you for the work that you are doing with Mr. Carl 
and others, and for being such a great Ambassador for marine 
sanctuaries. We hope to see you back and collaborate with you 
in lots of ways.
    Mr. Lum, thanks for sharing your personal story about the 
impact that fishing has had on you. If I had had access to the 
coast when I was growing up as a kid, I may never have stopped 
fishing. Unfortunately, I grew up in the Midwest, so the trauma 
in my childhood was that I had to suffer through warm water 
fishing, catching crappie and bluegill and stuff like that. I 
was even too far south to get the good stuff like walleye and 
fish of a thousand casts, the muskie.
    But now that I am on the California coast, I do get access 
to all of that, and it makes me appreciate even more how 
difficult it is, certainly, for a lot of kids, for a lot of 
families with children. When I fish in the lakes in Marin 
County, I am always delighted when I see a kid with a fishing 
rod. Where I grew up, all the kids had fishing rods and knew 
what to do with it. But every time I see that, there is a 
little twinkle in their eye. I can tell they are going to be 
lifelong fishermen, and I know that somebody took the time, 
maybe a neighbor like yours, or a parent, or a scout leader or 
somebody, to introduce them and to create that spark.
    So, I think it is wonderful, what you have done and what 
this legislation is attempting to support. Do you want to speak 
a little more to how these types of programs can really be 
transformative for families with kids who just would never have 
that kind of access without a little help?
    Mr. Lum. Thank you. And, yes, there are children all over 
the country that have similar situations, don't have access to 
the ocean, but they still find that the freshwater access is 
therapeutic, as well.
    We have a friend and a big supporter who is a 50-year child 
psychiatrist, and he discovered fishing when he was very young 
in the outskirts of Phoenix. And he had his family gardener, 
who found out he was interested in fishing. The gardener liked 
to fish, so he kind of took him under his wing. And he has 
since moved to California and served out his 50 years as being, 
like I mentioned, a psychiatrist. He believes wholeheartedly 
that fishing and access to the ocean is therapeutic and helpful 
for the kids.
    There is really no question about that at all. Many of the 
groups that we grant trips to every year, and we grant between 
60 and 100 trips every year, depending on what our funding is. 
Everyone consistently comes back to us and say we are saving 
kids. We are keeping kids out of jail. We are keeping kids on 
the straight and narrow, and we are giving them something other 
than gangs and drugs to long to be part of.
    So, that, to me, just says it all, and we hear it over and 
over after all the years of doing it. We are only limited by 
our funding.
    Mr. Huffman. Well, thank you for that great work.
    Dr. Anderson, I want to talk with you about harmful algal 
blooms. I will use the acronym HAB that everybody seems to be 
using here. But I know that this is a problem all over the 
place, including in my district. We have seen this affect our 
most lucrative fishery in California, Dungeness crab, multiple 
times in recent years, and the hypoxic conditions that result 
after these HABs decompose, of course, have terrible effects.
    It seems to me that, with climate change and increased 
warming, this problem is only going to get worse. Could you 
speak to how you see that playing out, and maybe making this an 
even greater challenge?
    Dr. Anderson. Yes, thank you. You have hit the nail right 
on the head. The combination of the climate and many other 
factors is making these problems worse, and the Dungeness crab 
situation is a perfect example.
    But we are seeing these not just along the coast of 
California and Oregon, but other places, as well. When you take 
a look at the changing situation, add to that the fact that 
there are multiple new syndromes that we are having to deal 
with in this country over the past decade or two, so we are not 
only having more problems, but they are getting worse, and 
climate change is just one example.
    But for example, in California, the organism that is 
causing the toxin that is affecting the Dungeness crabs is one 
that doesn't grow very well when it gets warm, but it is now 
being replaced by another that does grow well. And we now know 
that it makes more toxin when it is grown generation, after 
generation, after generation under warmer conditions. So, even 
though it might get too hot for one species, another one is 
going to move right in, and it looks like it could even be 
worse.
    So, there are so many climate stories, but there is no 
question that we are just beginning to get a feeling for how 
much of a change we have to deal with.
    Mr. Huffman. Thank you.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Bentz. Thank you.
    Chair Westerman, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Westerman. Thank you, Chairman Bentz, and thank you for 
the witnesses for being here today. And this is a hearing I 
have been looking forward to for quite some time.
    Mr. Raines, I watched your documentary on the underwater 
forest. And being a forester, I am just totally fascinated by 
what you have found.
    And my friend from Alabama, Mr. Carl, had been telling me 
about the underwater forest there, and there are so many 
questions. I could spend a lot of time asking you about it, but 
I am fascinated that originally you thought this was 12,000 to 
18,000 years ago. And if you look at sea level charts, the sea 
level was about where it would have been 12,000 to 18,000 years 
ago, but then you couldn't use the carbon dating because it was 
off the record of carbon dating. And now, with different 
analysis, you are thinking, what, 70,000 years ago when the sea 
level was back, and it is just fascinating to think that the 
sea levels have fluctuated that much over a huge time period, 
but we have an actual organic link back to that time.
    And my first question is what kind of new theories and 
hypotheses has this opened up for the scientific community to 
actually have samples from these trees that they believe are 
70,000 years old?
    And how much more do you think we can learn from it? It 
seems like there is so much science that could come out of this 
discovery that we may not even understand right at the moment.
    Mr. Raines. Yes. Well, one of the things about the forest 
that makes it so unique is that it was protected, and it didn't 
disappear. It is wood, and wood decays under water. And this 
was covered, so it was preserved, but it is a fact that trees 
are rooted in the ground they were growing in, so we have the 
entire ecosystem, we have the soil microbes and soil creatures. 
We have actually some beetles in the wood of some of the trees 
that were buried in place.
    They believe the forest was overwhelmed very quickly by 
floodwaters coming from the glacial melt at the beginning of 
the Ice Age, so they can actually see the succession of the 
water level rising in the plants as marsh grasses moved in, and 
then freshwater grasses. These things retreated and stuff as 
the salt water came in.
    The scientists have only been there a few times. Most of 
the original wood samples I brought up myself in a bucket, with 
a lift bag, and that is what ended up at Lawrence Livermore. 
Now, they have been able to get out there with sediment cores 
and things like that. We have actually found a few more spots 
that have more trees in them that are still fully buried, and 
these trees are 9 feet under sand.
    So, at the site, surrounding the part that was exposed 
during Hurricane Ivan, we have pristine sections of the forest. 
That is where the real science is going to, we are going to get 
a lot out of that because the site where we have done all the 
work has been exposed and it was exposed in about 2004 when 
Ivan came through. So, to have right adjacent to those trees 
that have never been exposed since 70,000 years ago, that is 
where the scientists really get excited about what they are 
going to find and see.
    Mr. Westerman. And it is fascinating that with the ocean 
level cycles, and correct me if I am wrong, but there was a 
forest there, it was inundated and flooded rapidly, covered the 
forest with mud, but then there was another Ice Age that 
exposed that land to the air again. So, part of this, the 
history of this forest, it has not always been under water, yet 
it was still able to survive.
    Mr. Raines. Yes. Well, one of the interesting things is 
cypress trees are not salt tolerant. So, what that tells you, 
the fact that these trees are 10 miles off the coast tells you 
that the shoreline for the Gulf of Mexico was much, much 
further offshore, even still.
    One of the interesting things that I learned doing the work 
there in the underwater forest and the documentary was these 
repetitive cycles of Ice Ages. Every 100 to 40,000 years or so 
we would have these dips and climbs. And one of the things we 
have seen in the forest was how quickly the water came up. 
Where they are talking about the rate of sea level rise today, 
well, it has actually risen much faster in geologic time. And I 
think we are seeing that happening now in real time. The Gulf 
of Mexico has the highest sea level rise in the United States. 
And it has accelerated, it is faster than they expected it to 
be.
    The forest is actually yielding real-time warnings for the 
nation right now when we study how quickly the sediments change 
there and things.
    Mr. Westerman. But the relative amount of rise right now 
compared to 400 feet of rise and fall is hard to fathom.
    Mr. Raines. Well it is. And you are talking over 100 
million years. But the scale we need to be thinking about is 
over 100 years and 1,000 years. And what we are seeing in the 
forest is that sea levels came up.
    We were talking about worst case scenario for the next 100 
years was 6 feet, potentially. Well, in the forest we have seen 
10 feet in 100 years. So, that is, to me, the message of the 
forest and the warning. And, again, it brings that science home 
in a way people can really understand. I mean, I think you have 
experienced that, seeing the documentary and kind of 
understanding, oh, this happens quickly.
    So, it has a lot left to teach us unless we let it all be 
turned into coffee tables.
    Mr. Westerman. And it is also fascinating that bald cypress 
are in the same family with giant sequoias and redwoods, which 
are some of the oldest living organisms on the planet today.
    Mr. Raines. Well, that is the other thing the forest does. 
We don't know what the Gulf Coast looked like before we started 
cutting it down. The entire Gulf Coast has been logged multiple 
times over the last 200 years. When they were logging Alabama, 
Louisiana, Mississippi----
    Mr. Bentz. If I may, can you wind it up?
    Mr. Raines. Oh, sure. The trees were the size of that giant 
one I showed. These trees were 30 feet around. That was the 
South. That was our coastal forest.
    Mr. Westerman. Thank you.
    Mr. Bentz. Thank you. The Chair recognizes Congresswoman 
Hoyle from the great state of Oregon.
    Ms. Hoyle. Thank you, Mr. Chair, also from the great state 
of Oregon.
    Thank you very much for your testimony today. It was a 
really interesting panel to listen to. But my question, after a 
comment, is for Mr. Lum.
    I also, like Representative Huffman, had some opportunity 
to fish when I was younger, at camp. And don't knock it. In 
Queens, in Jamaica Bay, when my uncle would jerry-rig a beer 
can with fishing line, and we would fish for porgies out in 
Jamaica Bay, which I ended up finding out was one of the most 
polluted bodies of water in the country, but it is now a 
wildlife refuge. Story for another day. Don't knock it.
    But you, in your testimony, mentioned Captain Rollo's Kids 
at Sea Program, which works with kids that wouldn't otherwise 
be able to get out on the ocean to go out and have these 
experiences, and I think it really is wonderful. And it is 
transformational when you expose children to things like this, 
to the outdoors, to nature, to healthy outdoor opportunities 
without beer cans.
    So, what I would like to know is how do you go about 
reaching out to these schools, and finding these kids, how does 
that program work? Because I think that this is an excellent 
example that we should replicate all over the country.
    Mr. Lum. Well, thank you for that question.
    We have a very unique situation in California in that we 
have sport fishing landings that run from the San Diego area up 
beyond the Bay area by San Francisco. And these sport fishing 
landings operate hundreds of boats. We have over 200 licensed 
sport fishing boats that take people out, 25 to 70 people 
sometimes on both fishing and whale watching trips. So, that 
doesn't exist elsewhere. We have somewhat of a unique 
opportunity which we have taken full advantage of.
    We don't have to go out of our way to solicit groups of 
children. They come to us. A lot of it is word of mouth. We are 
quite popular in the California area. We are at a lot of 
events, people see us, we are known. And the biggest question 
that we get is, what is the gimmick? What is the catch? You are 
not just going to give us a trip. Well, that, in fact, is what 
we do. If the group can contact us, and we can conclude that it 
is logical that they go, we want to know how many kids, we want 
to know what their area is, where they are located.
    Of course, we only have so much money each year to work 
with, so we prioritize and we take the inner city kids, we take 
the kids in need before we take the rest. But once a school or 
a group starts with us, we don't allow them to come back and 
take the same kids over and over. It is a one-time thing.
    Now, in the case of the school teacher I referenced, he has 
a different class every year, of course, so it is new kids 
every single year, and we will continue to grant him.
    So, they come to us. We don't really have to go to them. 
And at this point, I would love the opportunity to go out and 
reach for more, but it would take more money in order to do 
that.
    Ms. Hoyle. Thank you, Mr. Lum. I am lucky enough to live on 
the McKenzie River in Oregon. I can fly fish across the street 
from my house, and we have a lot of guides that are really 
interested in outreach, and I will certainly be talking to them 
about your program. So, thank you for being here today.
    And I yield the balance of my time.
    Mr. Bentz. Thank you.
    Mr. Duarte, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Duarte. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it.
    Mr. Scholz, you have done some work on algal blooms 
throughout the United States. I represent an area in the San 
Joaquin Valley in California where we are greatly impacted by 
water policy. Delta water issues are a big deal. There are a 
lot of municipalities around the delta that are discharging 
non-tertiary treated water into the San Joaquin Delta, causing 
algal blooms and nutrient issues that would lead to algal 
blooms.
    Have you studied this in your work at the administration?
    Mr. Scholz. I do believe, between the partnership that we 
have in the interagency working group with EPA, where we co-
chair with EPA, that across the interagency working group there 
has been effort in that area. I am not specifically aware of it 
myself right now, but we would be happy to get back to you on 
details.
    Mr. Duarte. Well, I am very interested in it because these 
algae blooms are a big problem. We are sending a lot of Clean 
Water Act compliance money to the municipalities, to 
California, for block grants. And it is not getting down to 
where the rubber meets the road in preventing these kind of 
discharges that are screwing up the delta, and it is causing us 
to use a very large amount of our surface water resources to 
flush the delta because we are using it for a toilet.
    And do any of the others on the panel have comments on this 
issue? Have you had experience or background?
    Please, Mr. Raines.
    Mr. Raines. We are seeing all these issues associated with 
algal blooms in Alabama. A lot of it is non-point source 
pollution, it is coming from homeowners, it is coming from 
septic systems. Mobile Bay, which is one of the Gulf's largest 
estuaries, has its own dead zones, multiple dead zones, and we 
are seeing that in all our coastal waters.
    So, you are talking about treatment, and treatment is a big 
issue. But I think a lot of your problem may be out of the 
bounds of treatment in terms of sewer plant or anything like 
that. That is certainly the case in Alabama.
    Mr. Duarte. Yes, I know in California there has been actual 
research that tied the, especially the Sacramento municipal 
waste discharges, non-tertiary treated, to providing large 
amounts of nutrients that have impacted the delta smelt, which 
is endangered, probably non-existent at this point, and also 
interfering with the salmon hatcheries and salmon runs.
    Mr. Anderson, I read in your testimony you have touched on 
some of these areas. Do you have any thoughts on these matters 
of what we can do better to make sure that the Clean Water Act 
compliance money is keeping these types of non-tertiary treated 
municipal wastes from going into our waterways?
    Dr. Anderson. I definitely have an opinion there. For the 
longest time, most of the work in the United States was funded 
through NOAA, through HABHRCA, dealing with the ocean, coastal 
waters, and the Great Lakes. But the EPA was not heavily 
engaged, and that has been something we have been working very 
hard to get. That is their mandate, to have to deal with the 
fresh waters. And nowadays, we have not only the EPA, we have 
the U.S. Geological Survey, we have the Corps of Engineers 
also, all weighing in on these freshwater issues.
    But in terms of pollution, there is no question that there 
is a very strong connection between pollution and certain types 
of this slimy material I was talking about in my testimony, the 
pond scum and so forth. Those species do extremely well in 
these polluted waters, and they are something that we will have 
to deal with with controls of nutrient inputs in watersheds. 
But it is a long-term problem.
    One of the other aspects of the HABHRCA legislation is 
research into control methodologies. So, if you could actually 
attack those blooms, suppress them, remove them, and we have 
technologies that are being used for that, both marine and 
fresh water that are under development.
    So, we can have the long-term approach through the Clean 
Water Act.
    Mr. Duarte. But importantly, not to cut you off, I really 
appreciate your testimony here, but most importantly is we have 
point source discharges happening that the EPA is not 
regulating at its maximum.
    I am from California. Fourteen percent of the state is 
mapped as vernal pool habitat for fairy shrimp, and the EPA is 
taking great interest in regulating under the Clean Water Act 
mud puddles. But what I am hearing from you is the EPA is not 
taking great interest in very feasibly accomplished management 
of discharge from municipal waste facilities.
    Dr. Anderson. Well, part of what I am saying is that it is 
changing, that that was true some years ago when we could not 
get EPA really to come to the table with funding and so forth. 
Now they are. Now they are interested. They have the harmful 
algal bloom program. They are part of a lot of our conferences 
and so forth. So, the times are changing.
    Mr. Duarte. It is 2024. The Clean Water Act was put into 
effect in 1972 or 1974. It is about time for times to be 
changing, isn't it? This is kind of insane to me, as a farmer, 
being regulated on 16-square-foot vernal pools when you are 
clearly saying the EPA has been AWOL on regulating municipal 
waste discharges into our waterways.
    Dr. Anderson. Well, they were AWOL when it comes to algal 
blooms specifically. That is where my knowledge is.
    Mr. Duarte. But algal blooms based on nutrient discharges 
from municipal waste facilities.
    Dr. Anderson. That is what is changing. And even for the 
small scale they were not involved. But now I think everyone is 
recognizing both the small and the large-scale impacts, and the 
EPA is, at least I have many colleagues now, funded and working 
with the EPA. So, it has changed in the harmful algal bloom 
field in a positive direction, maybe not as fast as everyone 
would like, but it has changed.
    Mr. Duarte. How exciting.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Bentz. Thank you. Mr. LaLota, you are recognized for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. LaLota. Thank you, Chairman Bentz. As you know, I don't 
serve on this Committee, so I appreciate your indulgence in 
allowing me to waive on to not only testify earlier, but to ask 
a few questions today and to discuss the importance of 
reauthorizing the Long Island Sound Program.
    Mr. Pickerell, a fellow Long Islander, it is good to see 
you here today, sir. Thank you so much for your work as the 
Marine Program Director of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of 
Suffolk County, and for your hard work and dedication to making 
sure the Long Island Sound is safe and prosperous for so many 
of us Long Islanders to enjoy.
    We only have 4 or 5 minutes, so I wanted to ask you about 
five questions in that time.
    First, a rough estimate, if you wouldn't mind, how many 
people every day are affected by the Long Island Sound, whether 
directly or indirectly?
    Mr. Pickerell. It has to be tens of thousands if you 
consider the size of the watershed up into Connecticut. Long 
Island, not as many, but yes, definitely tens of thousands, for 
sure. Hundreds of thousands, probably, if you go into 
Connecticut. Tens of thousands on the north shore of Long 
Island.
    Mr. LaLota. And would you describe in which ways are some 
of those folks affected by the Long Island Sound?
    Mr. Pickerell. Recreation, commercial fishing, recreational 
fishing, esthetics, boating, swimming, all of those things. 
Transportation, of course, the ferries, there is also 
transportation going east and west within the Sound.
    Mr. LaLota. Yes, awesome. Those are some of the very direct 
ways. How about indirect? How about, like, the water quality 
issues, especially if the water quality in the Long Island 
Sound is tainted. Could that number grow from the hundreds of 
thousands that you mentioned?
    Mr. Pickerell. If the water quality was improved?
    Mr. LaLota. Right.
    Mr. Pickerell. Sure. That could actually impact people's 
livelihoods, their jobs.
    Mr. LaLota. Yes.
    Mr. Pickerell. So, whether it is aquaculture or wild 
harvest of shellfish or fin-fish, that could increase and bring 
more money to those communities, to their families to put food 
on the table, things like that.
    Mr. LaLota. When considering those indirect measures, and 
you are the expert, not me, but my memo suggests that 23 
million people are affected by the Long Island Sound when 
considering all those indirect measures, as well.
    But let me ask you this. We are here to talk about the Long 
Island Sound Reauthorization Program. What would happen if the 
program never existed?
    Mr. Pickerell. We wouldn't see the milestones reached that 
have been achieved so far. There have been so many projects of 
all different natures that have taken place that have helped to 
restore habitat, fisheries, recreation, education, all these 
things. And without that I wouldn't be able to employ some of 
my staff, and we have a staff of over 80 that are working 
throughout the region. Some of those are funded through funding 
from the EPA, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Projects 
on the Sound.
    Mr. LaLota. Awesome. So, we have made tremendous progress 
over the decades authorizing funds into that program, folks who 
have worked and dedicated themselves to ensure quality in the 
Long Island Sound. And we have made progress over decades doing 
that.
    What if we stopped funding that today? What would life look 
like moving forward for those millions of people affected by 
the Long Island Sound if all of a sudden Uncle Sam stopped 
sending the money?
    Mr. Pickerell. We would actually go in reverse. So, those 
improvements that have happened would start to wane, and we 
wouldn't see any advancement in habitat value, habitat amount, 
all those things I talked about. We need to keep this going so 
that momentum maintains itself.
    And we need to revise the CCMP. That is going to be done in 
2025. The last revision was in 2015. That is a living document 
that needs to be considered on a regular basis with local 
stakeholder input, and we need that funding to continue that 
planning process so that these local groups and scientists can 
get together and decide where to go with this program.
    Mr. LaLota. Great. And of all the things that that funding 
goes to fund, what would you say is the most important program? 
I know there are many.
    Mr. Pickerell. Yes.
    Mr. LaLota. And I know they have a wide reach. But of all 
the different programs that the program funds, what would you 
say is the most important?
    Mr. Pickerell. I would say programs that affect the input 
of nitrogen into the Sound. So, that is myriad ways it gets in 
there, but it is stormwater, point, non-point source pollution, 
overland flow. Those things affect everything from oxygen 
concentrations, ocean acidification, die-offs. It is the most 
important thing, is to control that nitrogen getting into the 
watershed.
    Mr. LaLota. And we have just about a minute left and I have 
two more questions.
    Mr. Pickerell. Yes.
    Mr. LaLota. Focusing on the recreational, can you describe 
some of the recreational activities that folks enjoy, both from 
Connecticut and Long Island, and from the region in and around 
the Long Island Sound?
    Mr. Pickerell. Recreational activities, I am kind of close 
to shell fishing and fin-fishing, so there are many boats 
throughout the harbors on both coasts that go out to 
recreational fish. So, stripers are big in the Sound, people 
fish from the beach. Other recreational activities are 
swimming, boating, all those good things.
    Mr. LaLota. And one last question with about the 20 seconds 
I have remaining. How about the economic impact? What is the 
economic impact of the Sound, and what is important to the 
region there?
    Mr. Pickerell. So, funding from the program. Since its 
inception, I believe the economic impact of this program we are 
looking at today is about $96 million as of a couple of years 
ago. There has been about $54 million of investment and then 
about $40 million and change has been brought to the table 
through matching funds.
    The value of the estuary itself, the whole watershed, is $1 
trillion.
    Mr. LaLota. Yes. Thanks for your work, I appreciate your 
testimony. I appreciate the work of the folks who are with you.
    And I hope that is obvious to my colleagues here in 
Washington that the reauthorization of the Long Island Sound 
Program is vital to not only Long Islanders in Connecticut, but 
to the entire region.
    Thanks, Chairman, I yield back.

    Mr. Bentz. Thank you. I want to thank the witnesses for 
their testimony and the Members for their questions.
    The members of the Committee may have some additional 
questions for the witnesses, and we will ask you to respond to 
those in writing. Under Committee Rule 3, members of the 
Committee must submit questions to the Subcommittee Clerk by 5 
p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, January 23. The hearing record 
will be held open for 10 business days for these responses.
    I would also ask unanimous consent to enter into the 
hearing record a letter to the Subcommittee from the 
Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation in support of H.R. 897 and 
H.R. 3925.
    Without objection, so ordered.

    [The information follows:]

                  CONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN'S FOUNDATION

                                               January 17, 2024    

Hon. Cliff Bentz, Chairman
Hon. Jared Huffman, Ranking Member
Committee on Natural Resources
Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries
1324 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

    Dear Chairman Bentz and Ranking Member Huffman:

    In advance of the Subcommittee's January 18, 2024 hearing, the 
Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation (CSF) would like to offer the 
following statement for the record in support of two bills before the 
Subcommittee. Specifically, CSF strongly supports the Youth Coastal 
Fishing Program Act (H.R. 3925) and the Alabama Underwater Forest 
National Marine Sanctuary and Protection Act (H.R. 897).

    While the nation's coastline represents less than 10% of the 
contiguous land area in the United States, around 40% of our population 
lives near the coast. The close proximity of so many Americans to our 
rich marine and Great Lakes resources provides a perfect opportunity to 
introduce young people to recreational fishing and instill a deep 
appreciation of our nation's marine and freshwater environments. NOAA 
is the only federal land and water management agency that does not have 
a dedicated recreational program to introduce the public to the 
outdoors. The bipartisan and bicameral Youth Coastal Fishing Program 
Act (H.R. 3925) would create another pathway for federal agencies 
responsible for management of our natural resources to connect the 
public with those resources.

    The bipartisan Alabama Underwater Forest National Marine Sanctuary 
and Protection Act (H.R. 897) seeks to protect a recently discovered 
underwater cypress forest off the coast of Alabama. This highly unique 
substrate provides habitat for fish, an exceptional destination for 
divers, and a rare opportunity for researchers to explore our nation's 
biological and geological history dating back at least 50,000 years. 
While the bill seeks to protect this historic national treasure, it 
specifically ensures that the public will be able to experience the 
monument through activities like recreational fishing and diving.

    Both pieces of legislation are important to the nation's saltwater 
angling community. CSF sincerely appreciates the Subcommittee for 
scheduling a hearing on these bills, and we urge the full House 
Committee on Natural Resources to report each favorably during the next 
timely Committee business meeting.

            Sincerely,

                                              Chris Horton,
                                  Senior Director, Fisheries Policy

                                 ______
                                 

    Mr. Bentz. With that, the Subcommittee stands adjourned.

    [Whereupon, at 11:29 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

            [ADDITIONAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD]

 Prepared Statement of the Hon. Suzanne Bonamici, a Representative in 
                   Congress from the State of Oregon
                              on H.R. 6235

    Thank you, Chairman Bentz and Ranking Member Huffman, for holding 
this legislative hearing, and for inviting me to testify in support of 
H.R. 6235, the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control 
Amendments Act.
    This legislation would prepare and protect communities and 
ecosystems from the devastating effects of harmful algal blooms--known 
as HABs--and hypoxia events. Heat, decaying vegetation, and human 
activity in water systems are causing HABs to occur with increasing 
frequency. HABs produce cyanobacteria, which can accumulate in high 
doses in aquatic wildlife and, if consumed, can cause short-term memory 
loss, seizures, coma, and death. Hypoxia, low levels of oxygen, is 
caused by increased water temperature and excess nutrients, and can 
cause die-off of fish, shellfish, coral, and aquatic plants. My bill 
would improve monitoring, research, and community and federal response 
to HAB and hypoxia events to prevent and control disasters in our water 
systems.

    According to the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, a 
single major HAB event can cost up to $100 million in seafood supply 
disruption, environmental damage, and health effects. Dead zones caused 
by hypoxia can destabilize fish and shellfish stocks and kill off 
entire populations of aquatic species.

    Astoria, a coastal city in the district I represent, is home to one 
of two labs that test for HABs in Oregon. This bill would streamline 
assessments to better understand the causes of HABs and hypoxia and 
their economic and socio-cultural effects. Additionally, the bill would 
create the National HAB Observing Network to leverage ongoing 
monitoring and forecasting projects. It would also authorize the HAB 
Control Technologies Incubator program at NOAA to encourage development 
and deployment of cutting-edge monitoring technologies. These projects 
will equip researchers and communities with the tools they need to 
mitigate the risks that contribute to these events and respond 
effectively.

    Harmful algal blooms can occur in any water system, not just those 
in coastal communities. Last summer, a month-long HABs event in the 
Ross Island Lagoon on the Willamette River triggered health advisories 
in the Portland area. It happens in the Great Lakes and other bodies of 
water as well.

    My bill would also improve research, forecasting, and response 
duties for freshwater and estuarine HABs at the Environmental 
Protection Agency, and equip NOAA to act as the lead agency for HABs 
activities. It would provide resources to communities affected by HAB 
or hypoxia events of significance for recovery and restoration efforts.

    Harmful algal blooms and hypoxia events threaten the health of our 
marine and freshwater ecosystems and our communities. My bill will 
improve research and coordination at NOAA and EPA, and help communities 
better protect against and respond quickly to these disasters.

    I'm grateful that many provisions of my bill were included as a 
bipartisan amendment, filed with Representative Posey, to the Weather 
Act Reauthorization Act, which was reported favorably out of the 
Science, Space, and Technology Committee last November. I am also 
appreciative of the support of our Senate partners, Senators Tammy 
Baldwin and Dan Sullivan.

    Thank you, again, for considering this critical legislation and 
inviting me to testify about its importance. I yield back the remainder 
of my time.

                                 ______
                                 
                        Statement for the Record
                     U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
      on H.R. 5441, Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship 
                      Reauthorization Act of 2023

    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) appreciates the 
opportunity to submit this statement for the record on H.R. 5441, the 
Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Reauthorization Act of 
2023. H.R. 5441 would reauthorize certain conservation and stewardship 
programs in the Long Island Sound (Sound). These programs are led by 
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Service's statement 
focuses on our work in collaboration with the EPA and other partners in 
the Long Island Sound. We defer to the EPA to provide a position on 
this legislation but note that EPA's collaborative work through the 
programs that would be reauthorized by H.R. 5441 is an important 
component in efforts to conserve the natural resources of the Long 
Island Sound.

    The Long Island Sound includes 12 priority habitats that are home 
to a variety of species considered of greatest conservation need in 
both New York and Connecticut and protected under the Endangered 
Species Act. Thriving coastal habitats also provide important ecosystem 
services and serve as buffers to elevated tides and wave action during 
storm events, making coastal communities more resilient to climate 
change.

    The Service has a long history of coordinating with partners to 
conserve and restore the health of the Sound through the Long Island 
Sound Study (LISS), a cooperative effort involving the EPA, other 
federal and state agencies, researchers, user groups, and local 
partners. Together we are working to improve the conservation of 
wildlife and the habitats and waters they depend on within the Sound. 
Service biologists serve on several LISS committees, including the 
Federal Partners Coordination Team, a newly formed collaboration that 
focuses on building efficiencies across agencies to accomplish shared 
goals. In this role, the Service brings expertise on federal trust 
species and coastal habitats that informs the prioritization of 
research and restoration needs within the Sound.

    In 2005, the LISS initiated the Long Island Sound Futures Fund 
(Fund) grant program, which last year awarded more than $12 million to 
support 39 projects working to improve the health of Long Island Sound. 
This effort was led by the Service, the EPA, and the National Fish and 
Wildlife Foundation.

    Restoration of priority habitats has been a focus of partnership 
efforts within the Sound. The LISS has worked with the Service on 
several priorities within the Sound, including restoring vital habitat 
for threatened and endangered wildlife like piping plovers and roseate 
terns. One focus area for these species has been New York's Great Gull 
Island, which has the largest breeding colony of endangered roseate 
terns in the Northeast. The LISS has provided grants through the Fund 
for important management efforts to improve nesting habitat on the 
island. The Service supports these grants by providing technical 
expertise to identify and prioritize vegetation management strategies 
to improve nesting habitat on the island. Every fall and spring since 
2012, the Service has coordinated the treatment of invasive plants on 
the island, which is key to the recovery and success of the breeding 
population of the roseate tern at this sentinel site.

    Improved water quality and riverine restoration following the 
investment of LISS, EPA, and Service funds has also led to the recovery 
of migratory and forage fish that support terns and other marine 
wildlife throughout the Sound and beyond. These water quality 
improvements support thriving habitats, the species that depend on 
them, and benefit local communities. The Service is proud to work 
closely with the EPA and LISS partners to improve wildlife habitat and 
water quality, increase resilience and sustainability, and secure a 
healthy future for Long Island Sound.

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