[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 103 (Thursday, July 22, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1517-E1518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE CORAL REEF CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION ACT OF 2004

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. ED CASE

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 22, 2004

  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, every once in awhile I am deeply grateful for 
an action I am able to take that is both long overdue and truly needed. 
That is how I feel now as I introduce the Coral Reef Conservation and 
Protection Act of 2004.
  My childhood was spent among the rich diversity of the coral reef 
ecosystems of my native Island of Hawaii. It was a time of budding 
wonder at what nature had wrought, the living corals and other reef 
life existing in mutual dependency and sustainability. But just weeks 
ago, when I returned, as I often do, now with my children, to those 
same reefs, they're not what they were. Still beautiful, yes; still 
wondrous. But there is not the same diversity of coral nor the same 
luster; the fish and other marine life not as plentiful nor diverse; 
the presence of new, alien species is apparent.
  Of course, there are simply more of us in those marine environments 
than there were, and so our cumulative impact over my 50 years in those 
waters has become apparent, even at the level of recreational and 
subsistence use. But it's more, for these reefs have become a 
significant business, their coral exoskeletons, their living creators, 
and the shells and fish that live in and among them valuable 
collectors' items for the aquariums and curio shops of the world. And 
the purposeful and accidental introduction of marine invasives in 
isolated instances over the last decades have magnified into a critical 
mass of statewide presence and threat.
  In relevant terms, though, we in Hawaii are among the lucky ones, for 
at least we still have living, albeit threatened, coral reefs, with 
declining but at least remaining marine life. At least we have 
marginally protective state laws, and a culture of arguable 
sustainability.
  But in much of the rest of the marine world, especially throughout 
the temperate zones of the Pacific and beyond, the world of the coral 
reef is past endangered and into destroyed, wiped out by a wave of 
commercial overfishing, overcollecting, dynamiting, cyanide poisoning, 
and other forms of ecological pillage. In these worlds, laws do not 
exist to provide even minimum protections or, if they do, they are 
spurned.
  Some say that that's their business; what do we care if they wreck 
their marine ecosystems? First, of course, in today's interdependent 
world, our global environment is everyone's business. But beyond that, 
we can't turn our backs because we are the chief facilitator; ours is 
the largest market for the products of this stripping of the world's 
coral reefs.
  None of this is new: we have known all of this for decades. We have 
even set out to do something about it. In 1973, we became a party to 
the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild 
Fauna and Flora (CITES), which sought to clamp down on endangered 
species trafficking. But although some of our world's coral reef life 
has been designated as covered under it, the enforcement mechanisms are 
frankly ineffective.
  More recently, in 1998 President Clinton issued the Coral Reef 
Protection Executive Order (#13098) establishing the U.S. Coral Reef 
Task Force. That entity was directed to strengthen our stewardship and 
conservation of our country's reef ecosystems, and to assess our role 
in the international coral reef products trade with the goal of taking 
actions to promote conservation and sustainable use of coral reefs 
worldwide.

[[Page E1518]]

  The Task Force conducted its evaluations, made its reports, and 
outlined what was needed. That was in large part comprehensive 
legislation to institute common protective standards for our nation's 
coral reefs, but, equally important, rules to discourage international 
coral reef abuse and encourage sustainable practices by allowing 
imports only of non-endangered products collected by sustainable 
practices and pursuant to integrated management plans.
  The Coral Reef Conservation and Protection Act of 2004 I gratefully 
introduce today embodies the principal directions of the Task Force and 
more. It establishes a comprehensive scheme for the domestic and 
international protection of our world's coral reef ecosystems. The 
regime's key ingredients are the disallowal of any domestic taking, 
transport in interstate commerce, or import of the endangered marine 
life of our coral reefs, unless that life is collected in non-
destructive ways or subject to sustainable management plans or 
otherwise exempted from coverage by administrative actions.
  Mr. Speaker, we have to start somewhere; our world's coral reefs are 
crying out for our help. This bill is that start, and I urge its prompt 
deliberation and passage.
  Mahalo, and aloha!

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