Panel seeks balance between land, sea

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

Americans must learn to live more wisely on the land to protect the oceans which support their shipping, fisheries, tourism and an age-old human connection with the sea, officials of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy said yesterday.

The 16-member panel has been asked by Congress to develop the first new comprehensive ocean policy for the United States in 35 years.

The commission is holding nine public meetings nationwide. A two-day session in Hawai'i continues today at the Ilikai Hotel.

"Land and ocean management are intertwined," said the panel's chairman James Watkins, a retired Navy admiral who served as Chief of Naval Operations under President Ronald Reagan and as secretary of energy from 1989 to 1993.

Watkins said the connection was particularly prominent in Hawai'i, where even the highest mountains are no more than 26 miles from the coastal zone. But he also noted that nutrient runoffs from several Mainland states and Canadian provinces have created dead zones in the sea beyond the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Another member of the commission, Robert Ballard, said Hawai'i could play a key role in developing education vital to a wise ocean policy.

Ballard found the Titanic and is about to search for John F. Kennedy's World War II patrol ship PT-109 in the Pacific. He called Hawai'i an ideally situated place to serve as a base for new ocean exploration.

Watkins said half the population of the United States today lives within 60 miles of the ocean, and that will increase to 70 percent within 20 years. This means "we have to learn to live better in the coastal zone," added commission member Paul Sandifer, director of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

Sandifer said he believes those decisions should be made on a local basis, and not by the federal government.

The commission today will accept public comment and offer panels on tourism, development, coastal management, coral reefs, climate and ocean use and management.

Its findings will be presented to President Bush and Congress next spring.

Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.