How can we help protect and preserve Marine Life?

Management of fishing has increased fish yields in less than a decade in some areas.

Reduce land-based sources of fertilizers, pesticides, sewage, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and debris enter watersheds and eventually find their way to coastal waters.

Reduce the amount of dumping of sewage, garbage and toxins into our Oceans, Rivers and streams.

Without decision makers taking better responsibility for marine conservation and protection of the oceans, marine biodiversity the world over will be permanently compromised.

A comprehensive national strategy is crucial for reversing the rapidly accelerating decline in marine life.

More “Harvest refugia” or “no-take zones”, areas closed to fisheries extraction, designed to protect a particular stock or suite of species (usually fish or shellfish) from overexploitation.

More “Biosphere reserves”, multiple-use zonesthat exist within the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) network of protected areas.

Fisheries management, therefore, should include protecting coastal waters and be linked to other policies concerning the coastline.

Eliminate the 3 mile and 12 mile jurisdictional difference between state and US border that affect Marine Life.

Increase the funding and power of agencies that cover marine resources.

Increase efforts to conserving marine species, genomes, and habitats.

The United States has done virtually nothing to conserve this great natural resource or to actively stem the decline of the oceans’ health.

The United States has done virtually nothing to conserve this great natural resource or to actively stem the decline of the oceans’ health.

Industries that seek to release contaminants into the sea or fisheries that seek to maximize harvests should have to show that their methods do not produce ecological harm.

The U.S. national marine heritage is gravely threatened but mostly unnoticed because its under water.

Stop overfishing, filling of wetlands, coastal deforestation, the runoff of land-based fertilizers, and the discharge of pollution and sediment from rivers.

Fund more research to collect basic data from the ecological sciences, oceanography, and fisheries management.

Some problem areas Narragansett Bay, Chesapeake Bay, inlets of North Carolina, Lake Okeechobee, Florida Keys & Gulf of Mexico.

There should be a federal agency or department that focuses on ocean research in the way that NASA focuses on space exploration.

Toxic blooms of algae caused by fertilizer runoff disrupt the food chain and affect human health

Despite its name, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs NMFS, spends the vast majority of its money on weather research and satellites, leaving only a small research budget for the oceans.

More marine reserves to protect threatened species.

Limit overexploitation of the ocean and marine life.