[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

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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.
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    *White House correction.
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    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.