By Ben Harder
To combat environmental degradation and preserve resources off the nation’s shores, the U.S. government needs to double its investment in marine research, integrate management of coastal and inland ecosystems, and restructure the agencies that influence the oceans. The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, mandated by Congress and appointed by President Bush in 2001, issued these and other far-reaching recommendations in a report this week.
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“Our existing, fragmented system of managing the oceans and coasts is simply not up to the challenges at hand,” says the commission’s chairman, retired Admiral James D. Watkins. He and his colleagues take aim at outdated administrative mechanisms that they consider unfit to handle mounting pollution, declining fish populations and coral reefs, and promising new industries such as aquaculture.