Rare, Isolated Outbreak Of Bipartisanship In Senate Reauthorizes NOAA Ocean Debris Cleanup Program
Now the bad news - it's a whopping $10 million/year and requires the State Department (what State Department?) to coordinate efforts with other countries.
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Help may be on the way. In a rare show of bipartisanship, the United States Senate has unanimously passed the Save Our Seas Act of 2017, which would reauthorize the NOAA Marine Debris Program for five years and encourage international cooperation to prevent and clean up plastic pollution.
“Over the course of years and decades, marine debris deposited in the ocean half a world away inevitably finds its way to our coastal communities and ecosystems. Alaska feels the brunt of this crisis with its extensive coastline,” Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Arkansas), one of the three politicians who introduced the act this year, wrote in a statement upon the act’s passage in the Senate in August.
Like Alaska, Hawaii’s coasts are particularly vulnerable to ocean plastic pollution. That’s because it lies in the path of the North Pacific Gyre, a swirling ocean current that carries trash from Eastern Asia to the West Coast of the U.S. and Mexico. This current overlaps with others in the South Pacific and subpolar regions. The Save Our Seas Act recognizes the interconnectedness of the world’s waterways and coastlines, and the need to address the issue of marine debris not only in the ocean but where it starts: in human hands. The Act calls for NOAA to “work with other federal agencies to develop outreach and education strategies to address both land- and sea-based sources of marine debris.”
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The act would also require the U.S. State Department to work with countries to reduce ocean pollution. A report released earlier this year by the Ocean Conservancy identified China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam as the top five countries contributing to the ocean plastic pollution crisis. With wide bipartisan support for the Save Our Seas Act demonstrated in the Senate, proponents are hopeful that the House of Representatives will pass the legislation within the next two years. “Given the sheer volume of other legislative business pending in the House, it’s much more likely that we’ll see action on the issue in 2018,” said Kevin Allexon, senior manager of government relations at the Ocean Conservancy.
Ed. - Emphasis added.
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https://www.newsdeeply.com/oceans/articles/2017/11/29/rare-outbreak-of-bipartisanship-on-need-to-fight-ocean-pollution
