Unprecedented Conservation

The USA Today recently published an article by Nick Jans entitled ''A beginning' for conservation'. Unprecedented conservation will forever be part of President Bush's legacy. "Hard to believe... in the past four months -- 654,000 square miles of ocean bottom, more than twice the size of Texas -- represent, in total area, the largest act of conservation in our nation's history, and arguably the world's."

Like me, you probably missed the announcement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in March that closed more than 135,000 square miles of ocean floor off the West Coast to commercial bottom trawling. Maybe, though, you caught President Bush last month designating another 140,000 square miles around the northwestern Hawaiian islands as a national monument, closed to all fishing. CNN considered it a newsworthy, though definitely second-tier, sound bite.

Now, raise your hand (no fibbing) if you caught the NOAA Fisheries proclamation in late June that protected 379,000 additional square miles of ocean floor around Alaska. Even on a slow news day, that one was branded a snoozer.

Hard to believe, considering those three closures of federal waters in the past four months — 654,000 square miles of ocean bottom, more than twice the size of Texas — represent, in total area, the largest act of conservation in our nation's history, and arguably the world's. Consider that the entire area protected by our national parks, national forests and grasslands amounts to roughly 420,000 square miles.
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And so what?

OK, so a bunch of ocean floor is getting protected. Not like we'll ever vacation there. Land-borne, oxygen-sucking critters that we are, the virtually unexplored terrain that lies far beneath the waves might as well be Mars. Why should we care?
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"People overwhelmingly said they wanted clean beaches, healthy seafood, abundant wildlife, stable fisheries and vibrant coastal communities," she says. "And in order to have those things, we need large-scale habitat protection. It's that simple."
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The Joint Ocean Commission Initiative (a merger of the Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, which is appointed by the president and chaired by Admiral James Watkins) awarded the government a stinging rebuke in the form of a letter grade for ocean policy reform: D+.

Meanwhile, commercial fishing groups, faced with the prospect of restrictions and closures, added their voices to the fray. "When this process started, it was very contentious and polarized," says David Benton, executive director of the Marine Conservation Alliance, a commercial fishing advocacy group. "But we ended up with practical, working solutions. Industry recognized we had to step up to the plate and do the responsible thing." Oceana's amended proposals gained such wide acceptance that they were passed unanimously and endorsed by NOAA. The Hawaii closure, in which a consortium of native Hawaiian and conservation groups including Environmental Defense played a major role, was publicly embraced by President Bush.

"This is a huge step," Oceana's Ayers says. "We have a long way to go toward sustainable existence. Is it enough? No, but it's a beginning."

Benton adds, "This is a win for the environment and for the populations of animals and fish that we depend on."

To put it mildly, such sweeping acts of conservation are out of character for an administration that has given at best short shrift to environmental concerns. A cynic might say that these protections amount to a drop in the bucket of the world's oceans, and that the administration was forced into actions for which it now claims credit. While I'm hardly suggesting we baptize Dubya as a born-again greenie, the fact of these historic protections remains.

And consider the recent course of events. Environmentalists, commercial interests and government found a way to work together, declared a shared victory and practically broke into a chorus of Kumbaya. If this is a template for future conservation initiatives, in the oceans or anywhere, I say bring it on.