Thank you, Chairman Connaughton.
I want to go over three quick aspects of the plan and highlight some of the most important areas.
As the chairman mentioned, we have $140 million in oceans-related funds over the 2007 President's request. Of those $140 million, we have $123 million that pertain to NOAA and the Commerce Department and I'll highlight the three aspects and the three key areas of that investment.
The first is sustainable use of oceans resources and think about this in two broad objectives. One is end overfishing in two years, which is tremendously important if we think about sustaining our ocean resources over the long term and that will include the limited access program. It will continue to sharpen the data collection that we have from our oceans to be able to measure our fisheries population better than we do today. So a very important part of the plan.
The other aspect of the plan which is also very exciting is aquaculture. To really get us into this whole area of aquaculture, where we believe we can make a real impact, we have an $8 billion dollar trade deficit in fish. The irony is that half of what we import is farm-raised fish from overseas from other countries. We believe we can do it the right way. We believe we can do it in an environmentally friendly way. So there's also money in the budget for aquaculture.
The $38 million dollars for protection and restoration of marine and coastal areas and one aspect that I'll highlight that we're very proud of is the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. That is the largest conservation project in history. And continuing to focus on that and ensuring that the monument designation is executed for the best way possible is also an important focus for our budget.
Finally, I'll just say there's $61 million dollars for oceans research and that continues to sharpen our focus and expand our knowledge of our oceans which is incredibly important for everything we do in the future. So, we're very proud of this and we're looking forward to working throughout the administration to execute this plan.
Thank you.
Press Release White House Council on Environmental Quality Fact Sheet Video: Secretary Gutierrez Press Conference on Bush Administration's Ocean Research Priorities Plan and Implementation Strategy (requires RealPlayer)
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
