    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book II)]
    [September 26, 2008]
    [Pages 1244-1248]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the United States Ocean Action Plan
    September 26, 2008

        Thank you all. Please sit down. Thank you, Secretary Clough, for the introduction. And congratulations on the
    opening of the Sant Ocean Hall, which, by the way, opens tomorrow
    morning at 11 o'clock. The Secretary and I just had a fabulous tour.
    These

    [[Page 1245]]

    exhibits in this hall will remind people that our oceans are vital for
    our planet. This is going to heighten awareness of how important our
    oceans are and that we have a solemn duty to protect them.
        And so I've come not only to see the hall and to herald its opening,
    but to spend a little time talking about ocean conservation. There are a
    lot of people in this room who care about ocean conservation, and I
    appreciate you working on--with us to help preserve a vital natural
    resource.
        First of all, I do want to recognize the Chancellor of the
    Smithsonian Institute's Board of Regents--I call him the Chief Justice
    of the Supreme Court--Justice Roberts,
    thank you for coming. I appreciate very much the Sant family,
    Roger and Vicki.
    Roger turns out to be the Chairman of the Institute's Board of Regents
    and a big supporter obviously of the Smithsonian; otherwise, they
    probably wouldn't have named the hall for him. [Laughter] But thank you
    for your generosity and your support.
        Cristian Samper is the Director of the
    Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and he gave us a tour today. And
    he's a knowledgeable fellow, a biologist, and he will make sure that
    these exhibits remain relevant, you know, for the education of the
    American people. And I want to thank you, Cristian, for your service.
        I'm proud to be here with a member of my Cabinet, Carlos
    Gutierrez, Department of Commerce, which
    oversees NOAA, which had something to do with this facility. I want to
    thank Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo;
    there she is. Madeleine, good to see you; thank you for coming. She is
    from Guam. I appreciate the winners of the National Ocean Art Contest
    who are here today; that would be you all. Yes.
        I'm about to talk about some policy we've been implementing, and I
    want to thank all those in the room for helping. There's a lot of folks
    around the country and here in Washington who care deeply about the
    oceans. And many of the organizations that have worked constructively
    with our administration are here, and I thank you for your efforts,
    because the truth of the matter is that we have got a good record
    working with you. And I want to share some thoughts about it.
        First of all, you got to know I like oceans. I didn't grow up in the
    ocean--as a matter of fact--near the ocean--I grew up in the desert.
    Therefore, it was a pleasant contrast to see the ocean. And I
    particularly like it when I'm fishing. It turns out, it's a--I'm not the
    first President liked to fish. It turns out, the first President really
    liked to fish. George Washington--I was reading where he one time caught
    100,000 herring in a single day. That's either a lot of fish or a lot of
    fishing. [Laughter] But unlike that George W., I have not had that kind
    of luck before. [Laughter]
        America is a maritime nation. Obviously, the--protecting the oceans
    are in our interest. It turns out that commercial and recreational
    fishing add more than $76 billion to our economy every year. Seaport-
    related businesses add an estimated $2 trillion in economic activity.
    And the oceans are important for our economic--you know, as an economic
    lifeline. They're important to our economy. Seas also offer limitless
    opportunities for recreation and transportation and education and
    research. It all adds up to the fact we got to be good stewards.
        And so we developed what we've called the Ocean Action Plan. I'm a
    guy who likes--when people walk into my office, I like to say, you know,
    what are the specific steps, and how are we doing at achieving them?
    This particular plan started off with 88 different points of action,
    expectations; we've met 87 of them. When the Senate passes a treaty, we
    will have met 88 of them. And it's--[applause].
        Many of you in this room helped develop the plan. Many of you helped
    implement the plan, and I thank you. The goal was to make our oceans,
    coasts, and Great

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    Lakes cleaner, healthier, and more productive. I want to spend a little
    time talking about some of the successes.
        Under the Ocean Action Plan, we've worked to stop overfishing. Last
    year, I issued an Executive order protecting two of our Nation's most
    popular game fish, striped bass and red drum. I signed important
    legislation reauthorizing the Magnuson-Stevenson [Magnuson-Stevens]*
    Act, which sets a firm deadline to end overfishing in America by 2011.
    Many in this hall helped pass that piece of legislation, and I thank
    you. Thanks to these and other efforts, we are beginning to see good
    progress toward ending overfishing.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        *White House correction.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        At the beginning of my administration, 44 fish stocks were listed as
    overfished. Today, almost half of those stocks are no longer on the
    list. That's good news. Along the way, we've stepped up our efforts to
    identify additional fish stocks that are at risk, and we're going to
    take steps to protect them.
        We're protecting and restoring vital wetland and marine habitats. In
    2004, I set a goal of restoring, improving, and protecting 3 million
    acres of interior and coastal wetlands in 5 years. And we met that goal
    1 year ahead of schedule. This effort includes our watershed restoration
    project in the Florida Everglades, which is the largest in the world.
    During my administration, we have put two-thirds of Federal waters,
    about 2.3 million square nautical miles, off limits to harmful bottom-
    trawling and dredging. We care what happens in the oceans.
        We made a special effort to protect the tropical forests of the sea,
    coral reefs. Some of the most spectacular reefs are found in the
    Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, which I created
    in June of 2006, thanks to the efforts of many in this hall. This
    monument is the world's largest fully protected marine conservation
    area, and it covers more than 7,000 marine species, a quarter of which
    are found nowhere else on Earth.
        We've promoted a culture of cooperative conservation. Through
    programs like the Coastal America Partnership, we joined with State and
    local governments, fishermen and tribal leaders and tens of thousands of
    volunteers to improve conservation from the Great Lakes to the Gulf
    Coast. One project, which is dear to my heart, is when folks from the
    private sector helped to restore 10,000 acres of tidal wetlands in my
    home State. For decades, this area could be the equivalent of a dust
    bowl, just neglected. Today, it's a thriving ecosystem filled with
    shorebirds and abundant fish.
        Cooperative conservation works; it makes sense. It's a strategy
    that's easy to implement when you find people willing to step up and do
    their part.
        We're increasing international cooperation to protect the ocean
    environment that affects all nations. Through the Coral Triangle
    Initiative, we're working with nations like Indonesia and Malaysia and
    the Philippines and Australia to identify and eliminate the threats to
    tropical reefs. President Yudhoyono
    of Indonesia gets a lot of credit for this initiative. He is bound and
    determined to protect coral reefs around his nation, and we are bound
    and determined to help him do so by providing money, strategy,
    expertise, and encouragement. At the United Nations, we succeeded in
    passing a resolution to help protect fish stocks and marine habitats
    from destructive fishing practices.
        A lot of our citizens don't understand what's taking place in parts
    of the world, but people use dynamite to fish, or they poison the fish
    stocks in order to net them, or they use destructive bottom-trawling.
    And we're using our influence to stop those kind of practices.
        We're expanding ocean research. There is more left to learn about
    the oceans; there's probably more to learn about the oceans than we need
    to learn about the

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    Moon--or that we know about the Moon. And so to help unlock these
    mysteries, we've launched a 10-year Ocean Research Priorities Plan.
    Research supported by the plan is helping to reduce shipping's impact on
    the environment, improve our understanding of important ocean conditions
    like red tides, teach us more about the oceans' role in climate change,
    and improve our ability to protect Americans from natural disasters like
    hurricanes and tsunamis.
        We're expanding educational programs to teach citizens more about
    the oceans. The truth of the matter is, there's a knowledge gap between
    what scientists and biologists understand about oceans and what our
    citizens understand about it. So we've ensured that teachers and
    students and the public have access to the most up-to-date marine
    science. Laura was particularly moved when she
    went out to the Hawaiian National Monument to learn about the effects of
    debris--you know, people just dropping stuff all over their boats, and
    it gets in these currents and kills birds and clogs the ecosystem. She's
    been very active about educating the young and old about the importance
    of making sure we're wise about marine--not--stopping marine debris. The
    Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center network is a interesting, innovative
    idea where the public can learn hands on about sea life at more than 20
    of America's top aquariums. So there will be kiosks in each aquarium
    that are connected to here, as well as around the Nation, and people can
    get information at their fingertips.
        The great achievement, of course, is this new hall. It's built
    through a partnership between NOAA and the Smithsonian. It's going to
    introduce visitors to all kinds of interesting things: prehistoric
    predators, what life is like around the coral reef, an animated display
    of the oceans' impact on the global environment. It's worthwhile for our
    citizens to come here. I think you're going to learn a lot. As part of
    the exhibit's opening, a half-mile-long mural of ocean art by children
    from 110 countries will show visitors to the National Mall the beauty of
    sea life around the world. And of course, we thank those artists. My
    favorite exhibit was the 24-foot giant squid. That's--the squid was
    brought all the way from Spain as a joint operation between the Navy and
    the Air Force--[laughter]--appropriately called Operation Calamari.
    [Laughter] I do want to thank our military for bringing the deal here.
    It is--[laughter]--it's worth looking at it. [Laughter]
    Admiral, I don't know if you had anything
    to do with it, but it's--if you did, it must have been a heck of an
    operation. [Laughter]
        And then people are going to come here and they're going to be
    amazed to see a 45-foot replica of a female right whale. There are fewer
    than 400 North Atlantic right whales left in the world. And the model in
    this hall is inspired by a whale that got tangled in fishing gear but
    got herself free. She was given the appropriate name of Phoenix. And
    under the Ocean Action Plan, we've worked hard to protect whales like
    her. Part of the 88 different actions we've taken was to work on smart
    whale policy. And people in this room have helped. For example, we now
    require fishermen to use more whale-friendly gear. Based on a careful
    study of where right whales and ships are most likely to collide, we've
    rerouted the shipping lanes near Boston Harbor. The action reduced the
    danger to right whales like the Phoenix by nearly 60 percent.
        And there are going to be new regulations that will be coming to be
    shortly that require ships to slow down as they approach seaports where
    these whales are likely to be.
        In all these ways, the Ocean Action Plan is helping to protect our
    planet's most essential natural resource. Yet we're going to do more.
    And so I've asked--I've told people I'm sprinting to the finish; I mean,
    4 months, you can actually get a lot done. And so I've asked the
    Secretaries of the Interior,
    Commerce, and Defense as well

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    as the CEQ Chairman to work to find
    additional areas in the Pacific that could be eligible for Federal
    protection. We will improve our wetlands work by protecting, restoring,
    and improving an additional 4 million acres.
        It's important to set clear goals. We have set clear goals in this
    administration, we have met those goals, and in this case, we're setting
    a new goal. We will expand the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to
    include the Davidson Seamount. This 585-square-nautical-mile addition
    will safeguard one of the largest known seamounts in U.S. waters, and it
    will protect an extraordinary array of ocean creatures.
        All Americans have a responsibility and obligation to be good
    stewards of our environment. And one person who understands that is
    Pietro Parravano. I met Pietro today. He is
    a commercial fisherman in Half Moon Bay, California. He was as excited
    to see this exhibit as I was. When a project to expand the nearby Port
    of Oakland threatened the bay's fishing grounds, Pietro helped broker an
    agreement that allowed the expansion of the port while protecting Half
    Moon Bay. Pietro has continued his cooperative conservation work at the
    local, State, and Federal and international levels. This fisherman has
    been honored by NOAA and the EPA. He says, ``Conservation needs to be
    everyone's priority, because the oceans belong to all Americans.''
        I don't know where you are, Pietro,
    but--somewhere around here--wherever you are--there he is. Thanks,
    Pietro. Only in America. We're sure glad you're here, and thanks for
    your work. Like, people--Pietro shows that, you know, you can make a
    difference in your communities; it's just not all that hard. And part of
    the purpose of this fantastic facility is to encourage people to do that
    when it comes to the oceans.
        I believe that the research that's going on and the actions that
    will be taken by this administration and, hopefully, future
    administrations will say to our children and grandchildren, we saw our
    responsibility, and we met it; that those of us who work here in
    Washington came here to be a constructive force, to see problems before
    they became acute, and we did something about it. And for those of you
    in this room who are doing something about it, I thank you from the
    bottom of my heart, and so will future generations of Americans. God
    bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:15 a.m. in the Sant Ocean Hall at the
    Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. In his remarks, he referred to
    Pietro Parravano, secretary, San Mateo County Harbor District Board of
    Commissioners.