    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [June 12, 1998]
    [Pages 941-944]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the National Oceans Conference in Monterey, California
    June 12, 1998

        Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you for the wonderful welcome.
    Let me begin by saying how great it was to see and hear the Watsonville
    Marching Band again and my good friends there. You're always welcome
    back at the White House. And I like those uniforms. I liked them then; I
    like them now.
        I want to thank Secretary Daley and
    Secretary Dalton for sponsoring this
    conference. I thank Secretary Slater and
    Secretary Babbitt, who was here; Administrator
    Browner, Dr. Baker, Katie McGinty. And I'd
    also like to say a special word of appreciation to the Commandant of the
    Coast Guard and all the Coast Guard personnel
    and the Vice Chief of Naval Operations and
    all the Navy personnel for what they have done to help this be a
    success.
        I thank all the Members of Congress. The Vice President has introduced them, but I am delighted to see
    them here, and I'm very proud of them. I thank the mayor of
    Monterey and all the State and city and county
    officials who are here. And I also want to say, it's good to see our old
    friend, citizen Panetta here. [Laughter]
    Leon and Sylvia have earned the right to come
    home, and after spending the day here, I don't know why they ever left.
    [Laughter] But I'm very grateful that they did. He made us a better
    administration.
        Let me say a special word of appreciation to the award winners here
    today: My good friend Ted Danson, the president
    of American Oceans Campaign--[applause]--thank you. He has to go to a
    middle school graduation, but I think he may still be here. Dr. Sylvia
    Earle of National Geographic, Jean-Michel
    Cousteau, Bob Talbot, and Moss Landing Marine Lab, thank you all for your
    wonderful work and congratulations on your awards.
        I owe a lot of whatever good we have been able to do in this
    position on the environment to my wife, who has always cared about this and expanded my
    horizons, and to the Vice President. I was
    sitting there listening to him talk, and my mind wandered back--no
    offense, Mr. Vice President, I was gripped by your speech. [Laughter]
    But my mind wandered back to the conversation we had when I asked him if
    he would join me on the ticket in 1992.
        And I was remembering that, fittingly enough, when I called
    him to ask if he would come talk to me, he
    was at Rio, at the wonderful conference there on climate change,
    biodiversity. And I was thinking how influenced I had been already by
    his writings and his speeches. Even though we were neighbors, we didn't
    know each other particularly well. I knew him more through his work and
    the stands that he had taken. And I have to tell you, I was thinking
    again today as he stood up here, that's one of the two or three best
    decisions I ever made in my life.
        Sometimes I think Presidents like to pretend their jobs are more
    special and unique and their insights more impenetrable by others than
    they may be. But I'll tell you, there is one subject on which I think
    perhaps only Presidents can really know the truth. And I can tell you
    that the scope, the depth, and the quality of the influence in a
    positive way that Al Gore has exercised on
    this country in the last 5\1/2\ years literally dwarfs that of any other
    Vice President

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    in the history of the United States. And I am very proud of what he has
    done.
        Now, I thought Sylvia Earle made a
    very interesting presentation, and now I understand that why, when she
    was the chief scientist at NOAA, her friends called her the United
    States Sturgeon General. [Laughter] I had never thought about the idea
    that there are more fish than people in my domain. [Laughter] Now that I
    know it, I'm trying to figure out some way they can be represented in
    the Congress. [Laughter] That's no offense to those folks over there.
    They just need a little more help. [Laughter]
        I also want to say hello to Tony Coelho and
    all the people watching us from the United States Pavilion in the Expo
    '98 in Portugal. It is a remarkable coincidence and a wonderful thing
    that the World's Fair this year is dedicated to the preservation of the
    oceans.
        I first came to Monterey in 1971 in the summertime. And again, I owe
    my introduction to Monterey indirectly to my wife because she was then
    working in Northern California, and I was home in Arkansas, and I drove
    out here to see her. And I drove across the desert, and it was hot. And
    believe me, when I got here, I was happy. [Laughter] But I had always
    been entranced by this community, ever since I first saw it.
        Monterey's favorite son, John Steinbeck, as all of you know, was a
    serious student of the seas. In his masterful account of the 4,000-mile
    marine expedition he launched just about a half mile from here, he
    summed up what for me is at the root of the work done at this
    conference, the understanding that man is related to the whole,
    inextricably related to all reality. Our abiding links to the world, to
    nature, and to the oceans, our mystic and mysterious seas, has led us to
    this historic conference.
        We come to Monterey, all of us, with an appreciation for the divine
    beauty of this patch of coast which Al and I had a chance to see a
    little more of today, with two bright young
    people who showed us the harbor seals and
    the sea otters and some of the smaller life there. That's good. But we
    have to leave with a renewed determination to maintain the living,
    thriving seas beyond, not only for Americans but for the whole world.
        When astronomers study the heavens for life, what do they look for?
    Water, the single nonnegotiable ingredient. Our planet is blessed with
    enormous sources of water. Our oceans are the key to the life support
    system for all creatures on this planet, from the giant tube worms in
    deep sea vents to cactuses in the most arid deserts.
        In our daily lives, the oceans play a crucial role. They can drive
    our climate and our weather. El Nino taught us all about that and made
    people in Northern California wonder if the sun would ever come back for
    a while. They allow us global mobility for our Armed Forces. The fish
    from the sea are among the most important staples in our diet. And as
    the Vice President has just said, through fishing, shipping, and
    tourism, the oceans sustain one in six American jobs.
        These oceans are so vast and powerful that I think most people still
    blithely assume that nothing we do can affect them very much. Indeed,
    that assumption has made its way into our common vernacular. How many
    times have you said in your life that something you did was a mere drop
    in the ocean? Well, now we know, and as many of you have highlighted
    over the last day and a half, something you do may be a mere drop in the
    ocean, but millions, even billions, of those drops in the oceans can
    have a profound effect on them and on us.
        Two-thirds of the world's people live within 50 miles of a coast.
    Too much pollution from the land runs straight to the sea. One large
    city can spew more than 9 million gallons of petroleum products into the
    ocean every year. That's roughly the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
    Polluted runoff from watersheds has led to deadly red tides, brown
    tides, and pfiesteria. Runoff from thousands of miles up the Mississippi
    River has been so severe that now there is a dead zone the size of the
    State of New Jersey in the Gulf of Mexico. Ten percent of the world's
    coral reefs have been destroyed; another 30 percent will all but
    disappear within 20 years. We have not learned everywhere the lessons of
    ``Cannery Row,'' for more than two-thirds of the world's fisheries are
    overexploited, more than a third in steady decline.
        As the Vice President highlighted at the White House earlier this
    week, we are also changing the temperature of the seas, something else
    the young people told me they had measured here. We've just learned that
    our oceans are the warmest they've been in 104 years. That's as long as
    we've been taking their temperature. It must be longer, since we now
    know

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    that the 5 hottest years since 1400 have all occurred in the 1990's, and
    if the first 5 months are any indication, this will be the hottest year
    ever measured.
        We know that greenhouse gases are heating our planet and our oceans.
    Fortunately, we have learned that, along with the ability to harm, we
    also have the ability to heal. Through innovation and prudence, we've
    proved we can clean the water, the air, protect marine sanctuaries and
    wildlife refuges, phase out deadly pesticides and ozone-eating
    chemicals, and do it while still producing the world's strongest, most
    competitive economy.
        With partnerships and persistence, we must extend this record of
    success to our oceans. If we want our children to inherit the gift of
    living oceans, we must make the 21st century a great century of
    stewardship of our seas.
        Today I propose to intensify our efforts with a $224 million
    initiative to enhance the health of our oceans while expanding ocean
    opportunities in responsible ways for the environment.
        First, it is clear we must save these shores from oil drilling. Here
    in California, you know all too well how oilspills from offshore
    drilling can spoil our coasts, causing not just the death of marine life
    but the destruction of fragile ecosystems--also, economic devastation in
    tourism, recreation, and fishing. Even under the best of circumstances,
    is it really worth the risk? In a few moments, I will sign a directive
    to extend the Nation's moratorium on offshore leasing for an additional
    10 years, while protecting our marine sanctuaries from drilling forever.
    [Applause] Thank you.
        As I do this, I want to say a special word of thanks to Senator
    Barbara Boxer, who has lobbied me relentlessly
    for years--[laughter]--who tracks me down every chance she gets, who has
    even used her grandson, who is my nephew, as an emotional wedge to make
    sure I do the right thing on this issue. [Laughter] And I thank her for
    it.
        I'd also like to thank Sam Farr for his
    leadership in this conference and on this issue; Congresswoman
    Capps and all the other members of the California
    delegation who have expressed their opinion so clearly; and my good
    friend Lieutenant Governor Davis, who has talked
    to me about this personally.
        Now, by standing firm against offshore oil drilling here in
    California and around the Nation, these people have helped to protect
    the most beautiful shores anywhere in the world, and we can continue to
    do that.
        Second, we must do more to restore precious marine resources. To
    help create sustainable fisheries, we will help to rebuild fish stocks
    within 10 years, work with industry to develop new technologies to net
    only targeted species of fish, ban the sale and import of undersized
    Atlantic swordfish, and protect essential fish habitats. To protect and
    restore coral reefs, I have signed an Executive order to speed our
    efforts to map and monitor our reefs, research causes of their
    degradation, revive damaged reefs, and promote worldwide efforts to do
    the same. To reduce land-based pollution--[applause]--thank you--to
    reduce land-based pollution that threatens marine life, which is a
    horrible problem, I have got to have some help from the Congress. So
    again, I ask the Congress to fund my $2.3 billion clean water action
    plan to reduce the diffused pollution that has been running into our
    streams and oceans unchecked. [Applause] Thank you.
        Third, we must deepen our understanding of the seas. As the Vice
    President announced yesterday and mentioned again today, the United
    States military will release previously classified data to help
    researchers track marine mammals, predict deadly storms, detect illegal
    fishing, and gain new insights into the complexities of climate change.
    By the year 2000, we will complete an advanced ocean monitoring system
    that will also provide data for climate change studies. And as Dr. Earle
    said, we must do more to explore the ocean depths. We propose to provide
    new submersibles and other advanced tools for mapping and exploring the
    world's last great frontier. I'd kind of like to go down there myself
    someday.
        Fourth, we must create sustainable ports for the 21st century.
    International trade will nearly triple over the next two decades, and
    more than 90 percent of this trade will move by ocean. I propose a new
    harbor services fund to help our ports and harbors remain competitive in
    the new century, by deepening them for the newest and largest ships and
    by providing state-of-the-art navigation tools for preventing marine
    accidents. We must do both.
        Just last week I released, or pledged, some extra money to the New
    York-New Jersey harbor project in the face of clear evidence that if we
    do not do it, the harbor will not remain competitive and thousands of
    American jobs could

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    be lost. We can do this and make those harbors environmentally safer at
    the same time.
        Fifth, we must join the rest of the world in ratifying, at long
    last, the Convention on the Law of the Sea. [Applause] Thank you. The
    character of our country and, frankly, the nature of a lot of the
    economic and political success we have enjoyed around the world has
    rested in no small part on our continuous championing of the rule of law
    at home and abroad. The historic Convention on the Law of the Sea
    extends the rule of law to the world's oceans. There is not a scientist
    here in any discipline who seriously believes that we will ever turn the
    tide on these dangerous trends until we have a uniform legal system that
    can provide a framework necessary to give us a global approach to this
    problem. This convention assures the open seaways that our Armed Forces
    and our fishing, telecommunications, and shipping industries require.
    But it also, I will say again, gives us the framework to save the oceans
    while we grow as a people and while we grow economically.
        This year, during this legislative session, the United States Senate
    should and must confirm its leadership role by making America a part of
    the community of nations already party to the Convention on the Law of
    the Sea.
        Finally, we must continue the critical dialog that has begun at this
    conference and build together, across party, regional, economic, and
    other interests, a comprehensive oceans agenda for the 21st century.
    Like every other great leap forward in environmentalism in the last 35
    years, if we're going to do this right, we're going to have to do it
    together. We have to make this an American issue that transcends party
    and other philosophical differences, that is at the core of our own
    humanity and our obligation to our children and our grandchildren.
        Today I am directing my Cabinet to report back to me one year from
    today with recommendations for a coordinated, disciplined, long-term
    Federal oceans policy. And I want to work with the Congress to create an
    oceans commission so that all the interests that have been represented
    here will have a voice on a permanent, ongoing basis as we forge a new
    strategy to preserve the incomparable natural resources of our oceans
    and seas. And I hope you will help me get that done. [Applause] Thank
    you.
        During the marine expedition in the Gulf of Mexico which I mentioned
    at the beginning of my remarks, John Steinbeck called hope, the idea
    that tomorrow can be better than today, the defining human trait. Now,
    just about every American knows that I believe that. And I've been
    reading Steinbeck for most of my life. I didn't know about that until I
    began to prepare for this conference. In spite of the fact that I agree
    with that, I think it's important to point out that we are also blessed
    as a species with two other crucial traits which make hope possible:
    creativity and imagination.
        All of these traits, hope, creativity, imagination, will be required
    to meet the challenges that we face with our oceans. But they are, after
    all, the traits that first enabled and inspired explorers to take to the
    sea. They are traits that allowed us to look at our inextricable ties to
    our environment and invent new ways to protect our natural wonders from
    harm in the last three decades.
        In the 21st century, these traits, hope, creativity, imagination,
    they must--they must--lead us to preserve our living oceans as a sacred
    legacy for all time to come. You can make it happen.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:30 p.m. at San Carlos Park. In his
    remarks, he referred to Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley and
    Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton, conference cochairs; Mayor Dan
    Albert of Monterey; former White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta
    and his wife Sylvia; actor Ted president, American Oceans Campaign; Dr.
    Sylvia Alice Earle, explorer in residence, National Geographic Society,
    and chair, Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc.; oceanographer
    Jean-Michel Cousteau; marine photographer Bob Talbot; Tony Coelho, U.S.
    Commissioner General, 1998 World Exposition in Lisbon, Portugal; Lt.
    Gov. Gray Davis of California; and graduate students Nancy Eufemia and
    Raphael Sagarin, researchers at Hopkins Marine Station. Dr. Earle,
    Messrs. Danson, Cousteau, and Talbot, and the staff, faculty, and
    graduate students of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories were recipients of
    the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Environmental Hero
    Awards. The Executive order of June 11 on coral reef protection is
    listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.