Recommendations from the Cabinet include:
Sustaining Economic Benefits
· Create new incentives to reduce overfishing, allowing fish
stocks to recover and become more commercially viable.
· Develop guidelines for environmentally sound and sustainable
aquaculture and promote domestic and international compliance with them.
· Increase support for sustainable harvesting and testing of
marine resources with potential pharmaceutical benefits.
· Help state, local and tribal governments adopt and implement
sustainable development plans for coastal zones.
Maintaining Global Security
· Work with the Senate to ensure that the United States joins
the Law of the Sea Convention as soon as possible.
· Improve U.S. capability to conduct surveillance, detection,
identification, classification, and interdiction of maritime threats before
they reach U.S. shores.
· Coordinate initiatives to maintain and exercise freedom of
navigation.
Protecting Marine Resources
· Coordinate federal programs with "smart growth" initiatives
at the local level.
· Coordinate efforts among federal agencies to effectively address
polluted runoff and other sources of coastal pollution.
· Strengthen efforts to protect and restore essential fish habitat
as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
Act.
· Examine the concept of marine wilderness areas and its application
to U.S. marine protected areas.
Discovering the Oceans
· Improve coordination of data collection among coastal, open-ocean
and seafloor observation stations and expand their data gathering capabilities.
· Integrate relevant ocean science disciplines to advance basic
and applied research in ocean and coastal issues.
· Support expansion of underwater exploration by federal agencies
and through private exploration initiatives.
· Establish a nationally coordinated effort to improve and promote
ocean science education.
To oversee implementation of the Cabinet recommendations, the Vice President
announced a new high-level Oceans Report Task Force. The Task Force will
prioritize the recommendations, appoint lead agencies for implementation
of key recommendations, and meet quarterly to review progress. The Task
Force will be co-chaired by the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality
and the Deputy National Security Advisor and will include high-level representatives
of agencies with responsibility for ocean affairs.