Council on Oceans Policy Awareness

COUNCIL ON OCEANS POLICY AWARENESS

Mrs. DOLE. Mr. President, recently, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy made a series of far-reaching recommendations to help keep our oceans viable for future generations. While the Senate as a whole will not address these recommendations this Congress, I hope we may be able to work on these critical issues next year.

In the meanwhile, my home State of North Carolina has already begun to make real the recommendations of the Commission. For instance, North Carolina public schools have begun fostering formal ocean education in K-12 schools, after the State mandated inclusion of ocean curricula in middle school.

North Carolina is also leading the Nation in heeding the call for improved scientific understanding of the oceans. Of particular pride is the success of the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing System, or SEACOOS, an umbrella organizations of institutions that is building a regional ocean monitoring and prediction system for the southeast States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Through the leadership of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, SEACOOS aggregates ocean information from federal and non-Federal sources for display and redistribution. This information system supports many uses, from search and rescue and hazardous spill response to providing information for recreational boaters and fishermen. This collaborative effort among dozens of institutions is a model of teamwork that will enable rapid development of a relevant, user-driven multi-purpose system.

As part of the larger IOOS system, SEACOOS will improve the decision-making process for coastal managers, severe weather response teams, and so many others in whose decisions coastal conditions are a factor. Through its scientific contributions to data collection and analysis, SEACOOS will advance the Nation's needs in such broad areas as: marine operations, e.g. shipping and offshore operations like drilling and mining; natural hazard mitigation, e.g. storm forecasting, surge prediction, tsunami warning; climate change and its effects, e.g. interannual variability in water temperature, salinity, nutrients, storminess, plankton species and abundance, fish species and abundance; national security, e.g. toxin trajectories, detection of covert operations; public health, e.g. unsafe biological activity, rip currents, harmful algal blooms; ecosystem health, e.g. changes in food web structure; and sustainable use of marine resources, e.g. fish stock assessments.

Among so many throughout the southeast who have made SEACOOS possible, I especially want to note and thank Harvey Seim, Associate Professor of Marine Science at UNC Chapel Hill. Professor Seim has been the visionary and leader in building this collaborative initiative. His dedication to advancing scientific knowledge that serves the public interest embodies the best spirit of higher education and the academic research enterprise that makes our nation great.

In keeping with the recommendations of the commission, SEACOOS is a model worthy of replicating around the country. It is consistent with the Integrated Ocean Observing System that is called for in the commission report. IOOS is a national, interagency program that the commission recommends be fully funded and implemented to provide a multipurpose ocean information system for the Nation. Legislation to authorize IOOS has already been unanimously passed by the Senate, S. 1400 and companion bills are pending in the House. I look forward to continued congressional support and continued success as we increase our knowledge and understanding of our oceans.