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EDITORIAL: A State Mandate: Given Importance of the Waters to New York, We Need Ocean Protection Act

Posted on: Friday, 9 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Jun. 9--Sixth and final installment of a series

A word-association game that begins with "New York" is unlikely to lead quickly to "fishing." But economic activity that depends on the sea is a significant segment of the state's diverse economy. That's just one reason why we need a more efficient governmental approach to making policy for our waters.

We are, after all, a watery state, with a toe dipped in the confluence of the Atlantic, Long Island Sound and the Great South Bay, a shoulder rubbing up against the Great Lakes, and the storied artery of the Hudson River linking the tree-covered Adirondacks at Lake Tear of the Clouds to the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

Those waters are worth protecting, not just for their beauty or biodiversity, but because of their economic benefit to the species homo sapiens. In a 2001 report prepared for Sea Grant, a joint program of the State University of New York and Cornell University, the estimate was that commercial and sport fishing and the seafood industry, plus their impact on sales of goods and services, added up to $11.5 billion in 1999 dollars.

That valuable industry is facing challenges: One estimate is that the total weight of seafood landed in New York is only 25 percent of what it was 50 years ago. And shellfish stocks around Long Island are in serious decline. Even so, fishing remains immensely important here, especially to Montauk, Shinnecock and Hampton Bays, Greenport, and Freeport, and to the families that work from those ports, catching fish commercially, running party boats, packing fish for sale to markets in the city and beyond.

In the next few weeks, New York can cap months of attention to ocean issues with the enactment of the New York Ocean and Bays Protection Act, sponsored by two influential local legislators, Assemb. Thomas DiNapoli (D-Great Neck) and Sen. Owen Johnson (R-West Babylon).

To protect our ocean and bay resources, and to "bridge existing gaps in protection," the legislation lays down a brief but intelligent state ocean policy. It reminds us, for example, that "the ocean ecosystem is inextricably linked to activities on land" and calls for the state to use sound science to conserve and restore coastal and ocean ecosystems, "rather than managing solely on a single species or a single resource basis." It sets up an ocean council to coordinate state agencies that each have a piece of the puzzle, and it calls for a comprehensive ocean management plan by Oct. 31, 2008.

As passed overwhelmingly in the Assembly, the bill creates a council of agency leaders. If amendments add legislative representatives, fine. But the council is meant to be a governmental coordinating group, not a collection of stakeholders. Attempts to add one stakeholder group will inevitably lead to cries for representation for others. That could kill the bill or make the council unworkable.

We can't afford to squander the state's momentum. This year, Gov. George Pataki announced plans to create a new oceans expenditure category for the Environmental Protection Fund. (He proposed $1 million for this new category, and the two houses agreed on $2 million. But typical Albany squabbling has held up final action on the fund itself.) Last year, DiNapoli's committee held an important hearing on these issues, and Pataki convened an ocean and Great Lakes symposium.

The ocean bill doesn't specifically address the environmental problems of the Great Lakes, which contain 20 percent of the Earth's fresh surface water. But the state should join our two senators, Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer, in pushing for full federal funding to carry out the recommendations of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration.

This is the year for New York to act, as California has done already. No squabbles over minor issues should delay passage of this ocean bill.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

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