[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 32 (Monday, August 14, 2000)]
[Pages 1803-1804]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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Remarks on Signing the Oceans Act of 2000 in Martha's Vineyard

August 7, 2000

    Save the bill! [Laughter] Another triumph for the Secret Service. 
Give him a hand. That was great. [Applause] Thanks.
    Let me welcome all of you here and thank you for joining me today. I 
want to begin by just thanking the people of Martha's Vineyard for once 
again making all of my family, Hillary and Chelsea and I, feel so much 
at home. We love coming back to this place year after year. And in the 
years that I have served as President, it's meant more to us than I can 
possibly say, to be able to come here for refuge, to enjoy this 
beautiful, beautiful place, and to have the contacts we've had with our 
old friends and meet a lot of new people, as well. So I want to thank 
you for that.
    This year, because of the year it is and the activities of my wife 
and the things that I have to do, our vacation is a lot shorter than it 
normally is. But I think it's a wonderful thing that we can do this 
today here on our last day. I want to thank the Coast Guard personnel 
for making this beautiful site available to us, in the shadow of this 
great old lighthouse.
    I'd also like to mention a couple of people who can't be with us 
today that I want to pay homage to. The first and foremost is Senator 
Fritz Hollings of South Carolina. He sponsored the legislation that I am 
signing today, and he has been a champion of our oceans for his entire 
career. And Hillary and I want to thank him. Hillary and I and the Vice 
President and Tipper Gore were all part of our Oceans Conference in 
Monterey 2 years ago, and it was a very moving event which led to the 
passage of this bill today.
    I also want to acknowledge the contributions of a sometime resident 
of Martha's Vineyard, my friend Ted Danson, who has also been a great 
champion of the oceans and who was a part of our Oceans Conference--and, 
Mary, thank you for coming today--this is a good day for him, as well.
    The secrets of the sea have forever captured the human imagination. 
We are drawn to the stories of exploration, navigation, and here in 
Martha's Vineyard, we're drawn to the tale of that not-so-little fish 
with the considerable appetite who was filmed here 25 years ago. 
[Laughter] After a quarter century, though, I think it's safe for us all 
to go back in the water, and Steven Spielberg said so.
    I think it's important today to remember that oceans are more than a 
place for recreation. They have a central effect on the weather and our 
climate system. Coral reefs and coastal waters are a storehouse of 
biodiversity. They offer new hope for medicine and science. Oceans are 
also essential to our economy. Through tourism, fishing, and other 
industries, ocean resources support one out of every six jobs in the 
entire United States.
    For more than 7\1/2\ years, Vice President Gore and I have worked to 
safeguard our oceans and our beaches. We've quadrupled funds for 
national marine sanctuaries, restricted offshore drilling, rebuilt 
threatened fisheries, protected coral reefs, and strengthened water 
quality standards along our coast to protect against pollution.
    This year I sent the Congress a lands legacy budget that proposes 
record funding for ocean and coastal protection, and I hope Congress 
will pass it before they go home. But we must do more, and we must keep 
looking ahead.
    Two years ago, on the Monterey Peninsula in northern California, we 
brought together scientists, conservationists, and business leaders for 
the first-ever Oceans Conference. I called on Congress to create an 
oceans commission to continue the important work we began there. Thanks 
to Senator Hollings,

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we're following through on that commitment in this bill that I will soon 
sign, the Oceans Act of 2000, legislation to help chart a 21st century 
strategy for the protection and sustainable use of our oceans and 
coasts.
    The legislation establishes a national Commission to improve our 
stewardship of the sea. Above all, this bill is about setting a vision 
to ensure that our beaches are clean, our oceans are protected, our 
coastal economies remain strong.
    We know that when we protect our oceans, we're protecting our 
future. It is now time to do that. It's been more than 30 years since 
the last oceans commission, the Stratton Commission, laid the foundation 
for Federal oceans policy, which led to the creation of the National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But the pressures on our oceans 
and coasts continue to mount. Americans continue to be drawn to the 
oceans. More than half our citizens live in a coastal area. Nearly half 
of all new development occurs along the coast. But we know better than 
ever that oceans have limits. They can be overfished, overpolluted. 
Poisonous runoff from the Mississippi River alone has created a dead 
zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is almost as large now as the entire 
State of Massachusetts.
    These are some of the challenges to be addressed by the new 
Commission. But they will also look for new opportunities in our oceans, 
exploring ways we can all benefit from new technologies and discoveries. 
For example, in recent years, we've learned that blood from the 
horseshoe crab provides a vital antibacterial agent. And a potential 
anticancer drug may come from a deep-sea sponge. This is just the 
beginning.
    There's no better place to sign this legislation than here, because 
of the longstanding link to the sea the people of Massachusetts have. 
The maritime tradition stretches back over 300 years. Marine research 
was pioneered in nearby Woods Hole starting in the 1870's. Now we build 
on that proud tradition as we launch a 21st century course for our 
oceans policy.
    President Kennedy once said, ``We are tied to the ocean. And when we 
go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we're going 
back from whence we came.'' By going back from whence we came, we 
prepare a better future for our children. This is a good day for that, 
and I'm glad it's happening here.
    Thank you very much.

 Note:  The President spoke at 11:41 a.m. at the U.S. Coast Guard 
Station at West Chop Lighthouse. In his remarks, he referred to actor 
Ted Danson, president and cofounder, American Oceans Campaign, and his 
wife, actress Mary Steenburgen; and move producer/director Steven 
Spielberg. S. 2327, approved August 7, was assigned Public Law No. 106-
256.