Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance and Rehabilitation Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. KEATING. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Tiffany) for his support, the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Luna), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Huffman) for his great support on this and so many other issues we work on together.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2560, the Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance and Rehabilitation Act of 2023. This bill is an important piece of legislation that, for the first time, provides assistance to many organizations that work to ensure the continued survival of endangered sea turtle populations in the United States.

Every species of sea turtle in the United States today is considered either threatened or endangered--every single one.

In my region, warming waters in the North Atlantic have wreaked havoc with the annual migration of sea turtles. Changing conditions are causing many sea turtles to become cold-stunned as they depart Cape Cod Bay in the fall during their southern migration. Having become hyperthermic, these turtles eventually wash ashore on our beaches, and sadly, they perish from exposure and predation. They perish at a rate of nearly 100 percent.

There has been a sudden, shocking change in the incidence of this mortality. As the temperatures in the ocean have vacillated and gotten colder, within the 2-year period of 2020 to 2022, the amount of mortality has increased twentyfold, a dramatic increase in just a short period of time.

Further, sea turtles face threats from entanglement and ingestion of marine debris, from which, nationally, there were more than 7,000 instances just in the year of 2022.

This isn't just about my region. This legislation is supported by 72 different organizations in 27 different States, and it is bipartisan in nature. The Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance and Rehabilitation Act will provide resources to the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network, a consortium of numerous aquariums and not-for-profit organizations that work together to rescue, rehabilitate, and eventually release back into the wild stranded and entangled sea turtles.

This legislation is very efficient on many fronts.

Number one, this small amount of money, if appropriated, will move forward and take advantage of an increased ability to organize nonprofits and volunteers at no expense whatsoever to taxpayers.

It is also a moneymaker. Sea turtles are an amazing attraction. My wife and I just recently went to an area where we witnessed so many excursions, ferries, people coming from all over the world to go down and not only look at shipwrecks that are undersea but look at sea turtles.

In fact, I read just this week in a publication that there is one sea turtle, an older sea turtle in an aquarium, that was marking its 50 millionth visitor view--one turtle. It is a necessary attraction not only to preserve their uniqueness and their value but also to other people. It generates money that, again, helps taxpayers here.

Finally, the sea turtles themselves are efficient and helpful. They graze on sea grass and other areas. Their natural work enhances a cleansing of the ocean, so there is a holistic view of the work where they actually are doing something, again, at no cost that is helpful.

The work that this stranding network does in protecting these endangered species is vital to ensuring the populations of this much- loved species continue to thrive into the future, helping to preserve a unique part of the ocean's biodiversity for our children and grandchildren.

I am proud to have sponsored this legislation. I am proud of the bipartisan support behind this legislation to support sea turtle conservation, and I am deeply grateful that the House has taken up this opportunity to listen to this today and, hopefully, pass this legislation going forward.

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