Clean Water Network Florida

Clean Water Network of Florida

Issues - Oceans & Coastal Habitats

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2007 Policy Recommendations

The Clean Water Network of Florida and six other environmental groups are working together to get policy changes that will better protect Florida's coastal habitats and oceans. To download our policy paper entitled: "Florida's Coastal and Ocean Future: A Blueprint for Economic and Environmental Leadership" go to: nrdc.org. This blueprint has been endorsed by over 150 organizations and businesses in Florida.

The top priorities of the Florida Coastal and Oceans Coalition for 2007 include the following:

Top Policy Recommendations That Should be Implemented in the Next Year To Protect Florida's Coasts and Oceans:

  • Strengthen Ocean & Coastal Governance

    • Recreate an Environmental Policy Office in the executive office of the Governor to coordinate scattered programs and provide unified leadership, with citizen involvement, for ocean and coastal management.
    • Hold a Governor's Coasts and Oceans Symposium that will form the basis for a plan of action for better ocean and coastal protection and management make implementation of the plan a top priority of the new Administration.

  • Curb Unwise Coastal Development and Protect Valuable Coastal Habitats

    • Revise the Coastal Construction Control Line Program in order to ensure the program is accomplishing its original coastal resource protection goals (including long term protection of the beach and dune system), reducing catastrophic losses, preserving our shoreline from advancing storms and sea level, and providing greater public access.
    • Discontinue state efforts to assume delegation of wetlands permitting rules from the federal government and stop allowing wetlands destruction in exchange for wetlands mitigation, since scientific experts document that wetlands mitigation has not lived up to its promise.

  • Reduce Coastal and Ocean Pollution

    • Halt the state's efforts to weaken water quality standards and, instead, develop stronger standards, including numeric criteria for nutrients that ensures protection for coastal and ocean waters. Including an enforceable nitrogen standard in the Everglades restoration plan in order to protect Florida Bay and the downstream coral reefs of the Florida Keys.
    • Upgrade the state's stormwater regulations to address both dissolved and solid pollutants to ensure that water quality is not degraded by construction or new development. Increase funding to plan for and retrofit sewage and stormwater treatment systems to reduce nutrient pollution and harmful algal blooms.
    • Oppose opening up new areas of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico to offshore oil and gas activities.

  • Restore Marine Ecosystems, Ensure Robust Fisheries, and Protect Marine Species

    • Integrate Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's marine fisheries management with DEP's management of submerged sovereign lands, coastal ecosystems and water quality to achieve more effective management of valuable fisheries, special places and the ecosystems upon which they depend.
    • Restore the operating budget of the Florida Oceans and Coastal Resources Council and support funding for the ocean research priorities identified by the Council.
    • Establish a coral reef initiative, similar to the state's Springs Initiative, to protect and restore this unique Florida ecosystem.

  • Reduce Global Warming Pollution

    • Lead a public driven process that will by the end of 2007 result in a plan to:
      • Combat the effects of global warming in order to protect Florida from the worst of its impacts, such as stronger hurricanes, dying coral reefs and threatened fisheries, rising sea-levels, and threatened coastal communities;
      • Reduce Florida's contribution of harmful greenhouse gases; and
      • Lead our state to a new energy future that will create a more secure and prosperous and energy independent Florida.

Press Releases - Oct. 28, 2005

Groups ask Sen. Bill Nelson to protect Gulf of Mexico fisheries

Forty six Florida-based environmental and civic organizations sent a letter to Senator Bill Nelson on Friday morning asking him to protect Florida fisheries for the sake of his state's economy and for future fish populations. The Bush administration in Washington is proposing changes to federal law that would weaken fishery protections.

The legislation - a reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act - would also undercut the public's ability to participate in decisions about the Gulf.

"Fisheries are too important in Florida to allow management decisions to be made behind closed doors," said Linda Young, director of the Clean Water Network of Florida. "We have lost millions of pounds of fish in this state over the past year due to pollution and red-tides and this is no time to relax government oversight."

This year the Gulf has shown dramatic signs of ill-health. The worst red tide blooms recorded in thirty years fouled beaches with rotting sealife, chasing away tourists. A 2,000 square-mile underwater "dead zone" stretching from north of Clearwater to south of Sarasota killed millions of fish. This fall, declines in our fisheries were further aggravated by hurricane Katrina.

The groups asked Nelson to fight against rollbacks in the Magnuson-Stevens Act that undercut provisions designed to end overfishing and rebuild depleted fish populations in as short a time as possible.

Florida's world class beaches, coral reefs, and the ocean systems that stretch beyond our shores support a $57 billion tourism industry and more than 900,000 jobs. According to the American Sportfishing Association, Florida's recreational fisheries alone generated over $7 billion for our economy in 2003. With so much at stake, both financially and environmentally, to turn our backs on our fisheries and oceans is not an option. As D. T. Minich, executive director of the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau, recently said: "We need to have healthy beaches and healthy water to be the kind of destination people expect."

The organizations which signed the letter represent hundreds of thousands of Floridians and visitors.

The Clean Water Network is a coalition of 155 grassroots organizations working to protect Florida's waters. Linda Young can be reached at llyoung2@earthlink.net.