Ocean Progress

While climate change legislation is languishing in Congress, ocean conservation efforts have made progress over the past few days.  President Obama recently announced an Ocean Protection Plan that will finally create a national policy that (hopefully) will coordinate between the numerous government agencies that make decisions affecting the ocean.  

This is long overdue and was recommended by two prestigious ocean commissions years ago, only to fall on deaf ears under the previous president.  A strong national ocean policy would not only allow conservation to have an equal voice in the decision-making process, it ideally would also give momentum to creating more marine protected areas where fish and wildlife can be fully protected.  Treehugger has more here.

Another positive step recently was tobacco legislation passed by both houses of Congress and soon to be signed by President Obama.  While not primarily an environmental bill, the expected drop in smoking from the increased regulations is a good thing for the oceans (and land).  Anyone that has participated in a coastal cleanup has picked up dozens of these ubiquitous filters from the beach, where they are tossed without thought by smokers.  For years, these butts have been the top item (by far) found in Ocean Conservancy's annual International Coastal Cleanup.  In 2008 alone, more than 3.2 million butts were collected from beaches around the world, a full 28% of total items found!  More information on the legislation at Washington Post.