Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Reef task force
making waves in
preservation

'Real progress' is being reported
on saving the world's coral reefs

---

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

The U.S. Coral Reef Task Force, meeting the past three days in American Samoa, made "some real progress" toward saving the world's coral reefs, D. James Baker, U.S. Department of Commerce Undersecretary, said here today.

Baker, who co-chaired the fifth Coral Reef Task Force meeting, said he's "very pleased" with the task force because it has focused national attention on a resource in only a few states.

"I think all agencies now are sensitive to the issue of coral reefs," he said, citing national economic implications because of jobs, the fishing industry and the potential of extracting disease-fighting chemicals from the reefs and marine life.

Baker, Undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere, arrived this morning from Pago Pago to attend an International Marine Debris Conference at the Hawaii Convention Center.

About 70 percent of all U.S. coral reefs are in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. "In Hawaii alone, gross revenues generated from just a single, half-square mile of coral reef reserve are estimated to be more than $8.6 million annually," Baker said.

He said the task force agreed on an oversight policy -- "the way in which we actually are going to implement rules and regulations for conserving coral."

It allows people to see what the agency plans are and what actions they propose that may affect corals, he said. Any group can comment on the actions, then agencies must respond within a certain time, he said. "We are simply debating whether it will be 30 or 45 days for agency response."

Baker said the group also developed a framework on the issue of ship groundings, which is particularly important for Pago Pago, with nine grounded ships damaging its coral reefs.

The Coast Guard is working with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and other agencies on broad recommendations to deal with ship groundings, Baker said. Meanwhile, cleanup of the grounded ships in Samoa is nearly complete and efforts are under way to restore the reefs.

The Task Force earlier this year adopted a National Action Plan calling for mapping of all U.S. reefs by 2009 and setting aside 20 percent as no-take marine protected areas by 2010. Baker said that plan is being used to lay the groundwork for the "marine protected areas" that President Clinton in May ordered the Commerce and Interior departments to establish.

With federal funding and strong government partnerships, efforts began this year to map and monitor coral reefs to protect them from pollution, overfishing and other impacts. But no money was included for the program in the new Commerce Department budget in Congress. It had asked for $16 million and the Interior Department $10 million. Baker said the Commerce Department will make a strong case for its funding in budget conference.

Some congressional members and delegates, particularly from affected states and territories, are committed to saving reef ecosystems, he said, but for states without coral reefs, it's a lower priority.