    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
    [October 20, 2007]
    [Pages 1360-1364]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Executive Order on Protection of Striped Bass and
    Red Drum Fish Populations in St. Michaels, Maryland
    October 20, 2007

        Thank you all. Stuart, thanks for the
    introduction. Thanks for the invitation here to the Maritime Museum.
    It's a beautiful site you got here. I can see why people want to live in
    St. Michaels, and I do want to thank the good citizens of this community
    for coming out and greeting me and Laura. By the
    way, Laura is not here. She's headed over to the Vice President's house.
    They've kindly invited us for lunch. I guess you could say she's the
    taster. [Laughter]
        The Vice President tells me there's a lot of
    fine fishing here, and I'm looking forward to going out and trying to
    catch some. I love to fish. And the good news is--there's a lot of good
    fishing here--is because the Secret Service won't let me go hunting with
    him. [Laughter]
        I'm going to sign an Executive order today to protect our striped
    bass and red drum fish populations; that's what I'm here to do. The
    Executive order is part of our commitment to end overfishing in America
    and to replenish our Nation's fish stocks and to advance cooperative
    conservation and responsible stewardship. And this is a good place to
    come and sign the Executive order. And I thank you all for coming up and
    letting me say hello to you and witness this Presidential act.
        I want to thank the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, for joining us today. He cares about
    our waters and our fish stocks, just like I do. And I appreciate
    Carlos Gutierrez--he's the Secretary of
    Commerce--for joining us as well. He's in charge of NOAA, as is
    Conrad

    [[Page 1361]]

    Lautenbacher--run NOAA--you've got a fancy title: Under Secretary of
    Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. That means he runs NOAA. [Laughter]
    And I appreciate your concern about our waters, Conrad, and I want to
    thank you for your service to the country.
        I appreciate Wayne Gilchrest; he's
    the Congressman from this district. Mr. Congressman, I'm honored you're
    here. Thank you for taking time; appreciate you welcoming us.
        I want to thank all the State and local folks who've joined us.
    Particularly, I want to thank people who care about fishing, and thank
    you for being here. I want to thank the different groups represented
    here.
        I want to say one--there's a fellow up here named Walter
    Fondren. He's a fellow Texan. He had
    a lot to do with making sure conservation efforts on the Texas gulf
    coast worked. He proved, as have others here, that if you get together
    with responsible officials, you can help get these fishing stocks back
    to robust. We were losing our red fish in Texas, and he along with other
    concerned citizens came together and said, ``Let's do something about
    it.'' And as a result, red fishing is good again. But we want to make it
    as good as possible all throughout the country because fishing is
    important to the country.
        Listen, it's important to be a commercial fisherman; I understand
    that. But the commercial fishermen and the sport fishermen don't have to
    be antagonistic. It's not a zero-sum game. Good policy will help our
    commercial fishermen, and good policy will help our sports fishermen.
    And that's what we're here to talk about. And it's important to
    recognize here in America that sport fishing is a important industry; a
    lot of people make a living because of sport fishing. I don't know if
    people know this, but millions of Americans are spending about $40
    billion a year on sport fishing. I know in our State, Walter, there's a lot of people, a lot of
    entrepreneurs making a good living; they're fishing guides. A lot of
    bait shops and small-business owners are doing well as a result of good
    sport fishing policy.
        And so we're here today to talk about sport fishing. As a matter of
    fact, I'm fixing to go do some sport fishing. I can't guarantee I'm
    going to catch anything. I hope that frogman out there does his job.
    [Laughter]
        I want to talk about a little bit of the comprehensive strategy
    we've put in place. In 2004, our administration released an Ocean Action
    Plan, the whole purpose of which was to make the oceans and the Great
    Lakes and the coast cleaner, healthier, and more productive. The plan is
    producing some positive results.
        On--one of the results of the plan was the Marine National Monument
    in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands that I declared. The action created
    the largest single conservation area in the history of the Nation. It is
    the largest protected marine area in the world. It is a visible sign
    that we care about conservation and good water policy.
        I also signed the bipartisan Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation
    and Management Reauthorization Act. It's a good piece of legislation.
    Many here worked on it, and I want to thank you for working the Halls of
    Congress to get this bill to my desk. The legislation closes loopholes
    in the law by setting a firm deadline to end overfishing in America by
    2011. The law puts in place market-based incentives to help replenish
    our fish stocks by granting fisherman the right to catch a designated
    amount of fish during a specified season. The law increases enforcement
    and raises penalties for those who break our fishing laws. And this law
    improves data collection to help ensure our decisions are based on sound
    science. It was an important piece of legislation, and I want to thank
    the authors of the bill for getting it done. I think it's going to help
    a lot when it comes to managing our fish stocks in a constructive, smart
    way.

    [[Page 1362]]

        In addition to the Magnuson-Stevenson Act, over the last couple of
    years, we've made a strong commitment to improve, restore, and replace
    our wetlands. I set out the goal that during my Presidency, we would
    restore--improve, restore, and replace 3 million acres of wetlands. The
    reason I did that is because wetlands act as what we call nature's
    nurseries by helping small fish survive before they head into deeper
    waters. We're going to make that goal. We will have replaced, improved,
    and restored over 3 million acres of wetlands during my Presidency.
        Another significant problem is marine debris. And I was talking to
    Dirk Kempthorne, and he's going to host a
    symposium on the gulf coast to call our Nation's attention to this
    issue. Our strategy is going to be to work with the private sector to
    help clean up the debris. I don't know if you understand, it is a
    significant problem. Out there in the Hawaiian Island area that I set
    aside--Laura went out there, and a lot of birds
    are eating this stuff that gets washed up as a result of people just
    dumping whatever they want to in the ocean. It's like a--people kind of
    view it as, I guess, a giant garbage heap. And part of making sure that
    doesn't happen is to make it clear to our public the consequences of
    people just getting on our waters and just dumping whatever they feel
    like dumping out there.
        And we're also going to work with the international community. A lot
    of the nets we're picking up out of that beautiful sanctuary in the--or
    the monument in Hawaii of--wash ashore because some trawler decides they
    don't want to mend the net or store the net or take care of the net.
    They just cut it and let her go, and the currents wash all that stuff
    ashore. We literally pulled out tons of material off these islands. And
    so we're going to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with this,
    and call people to account, and ask them to join in protecting our
    oceans and waterways.
        We're also talking about today to make sure that not only we protect
    the waters, we're going to protect the marine life in the waters. And so
    I want to talk today about two of the most popular recreational fish,
    the striped bass and the red drum.
        The striped bass--I don't know if our citizens follow the striped
    bass, but it's a good fish to catch. It's a lot of fun. It's also a good
    fish to eat. We've got to make sure we've got enough to catch as well as
    enough to eat, and we can do both in a smart way.
        Striped bass range from the St. Lawrence River in Canada to the St.
    John's River in Florida. They inhabit parts of the Pacific and the Gulf
    of Mexico. Some people call them stripers or rockfish. I guess we're
    going to call them rockfish today. [Laughter] They can live up to be 30
    years old. In the old days, you could catch them up to 55 to 70 pounds
    pretty easily. And what we're trying to do is to make sure that the old
    days come back, that the striper is plentiful, and that you can catch
    some good-sized ones too--nothing like catching a big striper.
        They were once so plentiful back in 1614 that Captain John Smith
    wrote this: He said, a man could cross over the water ``dry-shod'' by
    walking on the backs of all the fish. What's interesting is, the striped
    bass was also one of the first species to be protected by the American
    people. In 1639, Massachusetts forbade the use of striped bass as
    fertilizer. By the early 1980s, striped bass were significantly depleted
    by poor water quality and overfishing.
        Over the years since that time, there's been some progress made to
    protect the striped bass, but not enough has been made. And so today
    we're going to try to make some more progress.
        Red drum is another popular fish that has experienced overfishing.
    These fish are called reds or redfish or channel bass or spottail. What
    happened to this particular fish was that it became popular to eat. The
    restaurants found it to be good food, and

    [[Page 1363]]

    it became a popular dish, and they got overfished.
        Now, we put protections in place both at State and Federal level to
    protect the red drum. Unfortunately, the red drum species is still
    trying to recover. That's why I'm going to take this additional step
    today, because the recovery is not complete. In the waters of--from
    North Carolina to the tip of Florida, the numbers are still too low. And
    in parts of our gulf, we're not sure of their status. So if you're not
    sure of the status, we ought to be taking special precaution. It's
    important that our fish stocks be full and robust and healthy.
        And so I'm about to sign an Executive order, all aimed to help the
    Federal Government conserve striped bass and red drum in three key ways.
    First, the Executive order directs the Commerce and Interior
    Departments--that's why the two
    Secretaries are standing here--to work
    with our fishery management councils and commissions to protect--to
    prohibit the sale of striped bass and red drum caught in Federal waters.
        Second, this Executive order encourages the periodic review of the
    status of the striped bass and red drum populations. This will ensure we
    have the most up to date information for determining whether breeding
    stocks are attaining healthy numbers and size in Federal waters.
        Data is important when it comes to managing the fishing stocks. To
    improve the quality of our data, we're building a recreational saltwater
    registry that will collect information from sportsmen about local fish
    stocks, which will help us better protect striped bass, red drum, and
    all our fisheries. We're going to count on the people who really care
    about the fish stocks for--to get good, solid, sound information so we
    can do a better job not only today but tomorrow in making sure our
    fisheries are strong.
        And finally, the Executive order encourages States to take a look at
    their own management of the fish stocks. See, we believe in cooperative
    conservation. That means cooperation at the Federal, State, and local
    levels. We believe in a collaborative approach, that the Federal
    Government ought to work with all stakeholders to achieve common
    consensus. And I respect the States' role in the management of the
    natural resources under their care. So I'm directing Federal agencies to
    work with State officials to find innovative ways to help conserve
    striped bass and red drum.
        And one such way is to use the State designation of game fish where
    appropriate. I hope the State officials take a serious look at game fish
    designation; it is an effective tool to protect endangered or dwindling
    species. See, it prohibits commercial sales, which removes the incentive
    to catch the fish for anything other than recreational purposes. State
    designations of game fish have helped the recovery of species such as
    trout and large-mouth bass and tarpon and snook. People need to take a
    look at this tool to make sure that the fisheries are robust. Strong
    fisheries mean local sales. Local sales means better local economy.
        And so the Executive order shows our commitment to conserving our
    Nation's resources. Our hope, everybody--the hope of everyone here is
    that decades from now, our children and grandchildren will see oceans,
    lakes, and rivers teeming with fish and sea life. I can't guarantee
    they're going to be able to walk across their backs--[laughter]--like
    John Smith observed, but I can guarantee that we're committed to taking
    care of that which we have been given. My hope is people look back at
    our oceans' policies and our record of conservation and say, ``We're
    grateful that concerned citizens came together to protect our
    heritage.''
        And so I want to thank you all for coming and giving me a chance to
    visit with you about a vision that is a hopeful vision and an important
    vision. And I thank you for witnessing the signing of the Executive

    [[Page 1364]]

    order to protect the striped bass and red drum fish populations.
        God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:12 a.m. at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime
    Museum. In his remarks, he referred to Stuart Parnes, president,
    Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum; and Walter W. Fondren III, chairman,
    Coastal Conservation Association. The President also referred to
    Executive Order 13449. The Executive order is listed in Appendix D at
    the end of this volume.