HARBOR BRANCH - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

REVERSING THE OCEANS' DOWNWARD SPIRAL - Dr. Shirley Pomponi

On Tuesday, a bipartisan panel of 16 experts from government, academia, and industry, called the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, released the most monumental review in three decades of how our country manages its vast ocean resources. Authorized by Congress and appointed by the president, the commission has spent the past two years considering testimony from hundreds of citizens, scientists, and policymakers. Over and over again they heard that the oceans are in danger and that the federal agencies and state and local governments responsible are not working together effectively. Ultimately they distilled an avalanche of material to produce a clear, stepwise plan for turning this situation around.

Because the oceans play vital roles in regulating our climate and even produce about half of the oxygen we breathe, everyone on the planet relies on healthy oceans. But here in Florida, most of us also depend on the sea for recreation, food, and employment as well. With our economy and lifestyle so intimately tied to the oceans, we can feel the effects of decline more here than any other state, in the form of beach closings, decreases in tourism, and even bad fishing. Such consequences threaten not only our way of life, but also the continued favor of the 50 million tourists that visit each year, and the economy they support. All of that is to say, we Floridians should care about what the ocean commissioners are recommending (to download the report visit www.oceancommission.gov). And we should do all that we can to ensure that the report's plan is enacted to protect our very way of life.

The commission examined everything from stewardship of marine resources and pollution prevention to enhancing and supporting marine science, commerce and transportation, and its recommendations are just as far reaching. Probably the most significant conclusion of the new report is that the mixed-up system that has evolved over the past few decades to oversee the country's ocean interests, which includes a confusing array of more than a dozen government agencies and even more Congressional committees, is simply not up to the challenge of fixing the problems identified.

To remedy the situation, the report recommends profound restructuring at the federal level, including a new advisor to the president on ocean issues and new opportunities for local and state leaders to access the president and Congress. Only with such federal leadership, coupled with broad involvement of state and regional governments, can the changes required be enacted and effectively executed.

That improved coordination will be absolutely critical if we are to begin managing the oceans in a way that takes into account the big picture instead of focusing narrowly on individual problems without regard to their interconnections. This concept, known as ecosystems-level management, is a key theme for the report. It means, for example, recognizing that pollution from Central and South Florida can harm fish and coral as far away as the Keys and beyond. It means working cooperatively to address such situations, an approach hindered if not prevented by current systems.

Though identifying many problems the report, along with those of us fortunate enough to spend our lives studying the oceans, recognizes that the oceans are still an awe-inspiring place with more than enough blue frontier to keep us exploring, discovering, and benefiting from those discoveries for the foreseeable future.

Next month, through State of Florida funding for a program called the Center of Excellence in Biomedical and Marine Biotechnology, a team from Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution and Florida Atlantic University will be searching waters off Florida's east coast and the Keys for new organisms that produce chemicals with the potential to cure human diseases from cancer to Alzheimer's. As startling as this may sound, even within a few miles of shore our group will have no trouble finding places that no one has ever seen. And if history serves as a guide, we'll have no trouble making promising new finds.

But such programs are just a drop in the world's largest bucket, so another of the report's recommendations is that the country begin a serious effort to study the 95% of the oceans that remain unexplored, among numerous other recommendations for expanded research. Besides disease cures, ocean exploration will also lead to new technologies and improved scientific understanding with benefits comparable, likely even superior, to those we have realized as a result of space exploration. As evidence, consider that past ocean-based discoveries have already advanced everything from biotechnology to telecommunications, and that several promising disease treatments from ocean sources are now in human clinical trials.

Obviously I do not believe the situation we face is hopeless, but we do clearly have a great deal of work to do. The new report recommends a framework that will make that work possible, but only if we put it to use. So, for everyone who enjoys fishing, diving, spending a day at a clean beach, eating safe seafood, or for that matter breathing that 50% of oxygen the oceans give us, I would urge you to call on state and national leaders to act quickly and decisively to carry out the commission's recommendations. The health of our oceans should be a key issue in the coming election, but that can only happen if we demand it. With a clear path to follow, the support of stakeholders around the country, and the interest of Congress to make the necessary changes, we have a unique opportunity to reverse the downward spiral of ocean health.

****Dr. Shirley Pomponi is the acting managing director of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Ft. Pierce, Florida. She was one of only two Floridians to serve on the U.S. Commission On Ocean Policy's Science Advisory Panel.

This editorial may be freely used and reprinted, provided that Dr. Pomponi, her position with the Commission, and Harbor Branch are properly cited. For more information, contact Mark Schrope, Harbor Branch Science Writer, 772-216-0390, schrope@hboi.edu

HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution was founded in Ft. Pierce, Fla., in 1971 to support the exploration and conservation of the world's oceans. The institution has held to this mission and grown into one of the world's leading oceanographic institutions with a 500-acre campus, over 200 personnel, and a fleet of sophisticated research ships and submersibles.