U.S. Senate Ocean Caucus: group formed to weigh pressing ocean management issues

How does one get 100 senators and 435 representatives to agree on anything? Well, judging by today's standards, it would appear to be an impossibility. But one method is the senate caucus - a group of senators that discuss the most pressing issues regarding a particular topic, trying to move forward on proposed legislation with a unified, bipartisan voice.

The Senate Ocean Caucus has been forming, its latest permutation consisting of 19 senators, co-chaired by Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

As reported in the Cape Cod Times, "Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Scott Brown, R-Mass., and 17 other senators founded the Senate ocean caucus last week to collaborate on federal ocean management and protection policies. The caucus also plans to educate congressional members and staff on ocean and coastal policies and scientific research.

'The ocean caucus will help focus attention on ... laws that govern the seas, affect jobs and vital industries, concern our marine ecosystems and protect our waters off Massachusetts,' Kerry said."

David Helvarg's Blue Frontier Campaign has been watching this group closely (At the Blue Frontier Campaign's Blue Vision Summit in May, I had an opportunity to hear Sen. Whitehouse speak cautiously but optimistically about the caucus) and David had this to say,

"Senator Whitehouse said the caucus will focus on 'the role of the ocean economy, ecosystems functions and the need for more research.' Hopefully it can also help save ocean agencies and programs from having their budgets slashed by the House and that other body, oh yeah, the Senate. From what was said, it sounds like the caucus will begin working around issues involving the melting Arctic, the Law of the Seas treaty that the Senate has yet to ratify (30 years and counting), and ocean conservation. It’s a truly hopeful sign in a generally less than hopeful town."

With a Senate Ocean Caucus - there is also a House version, too - ocean conservation organizations and citizens as a whole will have a focal point toward which they can direct their concerns and watch what is being considered, debated, and acted upon in Washington. As dysfunctional as our government currently is, we still need those lightning rods where we can direct our energy towards getting government to seriously consider the long-term consequences of ineffective conservation and natural resource management.

Read the Blue Frontier Campaign's latest newsletter.
Read about the Senate Ocean caucus in the Cape Cod Times.

Congress Squabbles Over Conservation: biodiversity protections held up while Senators debate merits

Discovery's Tree Hugger blog site and Washington DC's The Hill both ran important news items on several pieces of conservation legislation being stalled in the U.S. Senate, primarily due to the efforts of one Senator Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.). His position was that the five bills, supported by several key Republican colleagues and ranging from issues regarding shark finning to marine mammals to great cats and canids to cranes, were a waste of money.

"The problems that are facing this country are so big and so massive that our attention ought to be focused on those large problems, not on five separate bills that have been proffered for special interest groups," the senator was quoted as saying.

While the current economic situation in the United States, and globally, is without question one of the more pressing issues today and will garner greater priority and attention than longer term environmental issues, the politics of fear combined with the campaign jargon of the moment must not derail responsible policymakers from making decisions that have implications, both environmental and economic, far beyond simply the conservation of a particular species. Maintaining a healthy biodiversity is not just a feel good moral issue, it is one that has concrete implications over a range of industries and worldwide economies.

As noted in Tree Hugger, The Huffington Post described Senator Coburn's actions this way, "Cautious spending is an important value, but so is the defense of animals from cruelty, the rescue of marine creatures injured by human actions, or the protection of wild species from extinction. Coburn has corrupted a laudable principle of fiscal conservatism, and used it to negate and nullify valuable initiatives designed to protect vulnerable species at serious risk."

Read the entire article in Discovery's Tree Hugger.
Read the entire article in The Hill.
Read the entire article in The Huffington Post.

Shark Conservation Act: shark finning legislation re-introduced in U.S. Congress

Another piece of shark news that could prove to be a success if we all get behind it and push is the Shark Conservation Act (HR 81) recently introduced in the U.S. Congress. This piece of legislation closes a loophole in previous legislation - a loophole that was supposed to be taken care of by last year's HR 5741 which unfortunately stalled in the Senate until the session expired.

Re-introduced by Congresswoman Madeleine Bardallo (Guam), the Shark Conservation Act requires that all sharks taken in U.S. waters must have the fins naturally attached - Want the fins? Then you must take the whole animal.

Wait, you say! Isn't shark finning illegal in the U.S.? Well, yes and no. In Pacific waters, it is legal to transport fins as long as they were not finned aboard the vessel - a loophole that this legislation will close. The benefits of this legislation are two-fold:

1. It will prevent shark finning in U.S. Pacific waters and possibly impact the practice outside of U.S. territorial jurisdiction.
2. It will allow for better enforcement of existing regulations and improved management of the commercial fishing industry in the taking of sharks or shark-related products.
3. A more subtle impact will be that boats will be financially pressured to reconsider the commercial value of taking sharks when they must fill hold space with the lower valued carcass along with the higher valued fins. This could in time, reduce the commercial take of sharks all together.
   

The Shark Conservation Act must make its way through the halls of Congress and on to the Senate for final passage and implementation. To motivate your congressperson, you can make your voice heard through Oceana.org's Wavemakers web page which will forward your personal email to your elected representative. Here's the link.

Let your voice be heard!

HR 5741 moves to the U.S. Senate for approval

One step at a time . . . HR 5741 - the amendment to close an important loophole in the Shark Conservation Act of 2008 - has passed the House of Representatives and has moved on to the Senate for a vote. This is important legislation that will help put a dent in the taking and processing of shark fins.

The Humane Society is running an online support drive whereby you can email your state senator requesting support and passage of this important piece of shark conservation legislation. To send your senator an email, click here.

Give HR 5741 your support so that we can see it pass through Congress as quickly as possible. One step at a time, but every vote . . . and every fin . . . counts!

HR 5471 (background info)