Tell your representative to co-sponsor a national Healthy Oceans Act

Tell your representative to co-sponsor a national Healthy Oceans Act

I pledge to...

<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_032709">http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_032709</a><br /><br /><strong>Tell your representative to co-sponsor a national Healthy Oceans Act<br /><br /></strong></p>
<p>Oceans provide us the beaches and waves that Americans flock to all year round. But they also feed the world, regulate our climate, provide jobs and transportation, produce oxygen and shelter half of the world's species.</p>
<p>Most of us never even see below their surface, but our oceans are in a silent state of collapse. We drill them for oil and pollute them with waste. We change their temperature and chemistry through global warming and ocean acidification. We've pushed 75 percent of the world's fisheries to or beyond the limits of sustainability, and 90 percent of large ocean predators -- such as tuna and swordfish -- have simply disappeared.</p>
<p>Marine scientists have called the changes we are seeing in our oceans "the rise of slime" -- where jellyfish, algae and bacteria take over ocean areas that no longer contain and can no longer support other forms of life. But although our oceans are in trouble, right now we have no comprehensive, national law to protect and restore them. Instead, they are managed by 140 different laws and 20 different agencies, each with diverging goals and conflicting mandates.</p>
<p>To save our seas, we need a Healthy Oceans Act similar to the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. The good news is that Congress is already considering such a bill ("Oceans-21" -- the Oceans Conservation, Education and National Strategy for the 21st Century Act). From helping ocean life survive global warming, to regulating fisheries and establishing a national network of marine protected areas, Oceans-21 provides the oceans management framework we need to revive our oceans.</p>
What to doSend a message urging your representative to co-sponsor Oceans-21, the Oceans Conservation, Education and National Strategy for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 21). <br />
<p><a href="http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_032709">http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_032709</a><br /><br />We've known for years that our oceans are in trouble, struggling under the strain of oil drilling, pollution, overfishing, global warming and acidification. Like the Clean Air Act for our air, and the Clean Water Act for our water, we need a Healthy Oceans Act for our oceans.</p>
<p>"Oceans-21," the Oceans Conservation, Education and National Strategy for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 21), addresses the overarching problem with ocean policy in America -- while our ocean resources are facing myriad threats, we don't have the legislative tools to address these threats or their consequences. From our beach vacations, to our $117 billion per year oceans-supported economies, too many of our activities depend on healthy ocean ecosystems to allow this situation to continue.</p>
<p>Right now we have 140 different laws for managing our oceans, implemented by 20 federal agencies, but no overarching vision or national plan to revive or protect our seas. These laws are important, but each is targeted to an individual goal, resource or area -- such as maximizing fisheries yield, avoiding marine mammal mortality or protecting individual ocean sanctuaries -- and the implementation of one is largely disjointed from the next. For too long we have been trying to manage the details individually without a big picture.</p>
<p>A Healthy Oceans Act like Oceans-21 would fill this gap by establishing a national ocean vision, a way to implement it at the federal and regional levels, and the funding to do it. Our oceans are too important to let this problem continue. I urge you to co-sponsor Oceans-21 today and do all you can to ensure its passage.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_032709">http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_032709</a><a href="http://www.nrdconline.org/ct/H7Mpzvd1NuCj/"></a>

[Your name]