From the President’s Office – 1/9/09
Filed under: About,From The President's Office,News & Resources
I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday season and is prepared for what promises to be a very active year. Already in the first days of the New Year things are happening that suggest it is going to be a pretty exciting year and one which will have significant impact on ocean research and education.
At the White House this week I had the opportunity to hear President Bush’s remarks on conservation and the environment when he announced that he was creating three large new marine reserves in the Pacific Ocean spanning over 195,000 square miles. The president is designating the areas – one of them spanning the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean – as Marine National Monuments. This designation makes the areas off-limits to deep-sea mining and most fishing and will help preserve the corals, hydrothermal vents and vast diversity of marine organisms that exist in these areas.
He also made the point that these reserves were natural laboratories for scientific research and that they would extend the frontier for discovery. At Ocean Leadership over the past year, we have worked hard to be sure that these areas remain freely accessible to scientific research with minimal regulatory interference.
There have been two major personnel changes in the new administration. As you are probably well aware, President-elect Barack Obama has nominated Leon Panetta to be the next Director of the CIA. Leon currently serves as a member of our Board of Trustees. I thank him for his tireless work on behalf of the Ocean. His thoughtfulness and wise counsel have been very helpful to us as we have launched our new organization.
We were all disappointed to hear that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has stepped aside and will not become the next Secretary of the Department of Commerce. Given Governor Richardson’s experience running a science agency, the Department of Energy, during the Clinton Administration, he was an excellent choice to guide DOC and NOAA in the right direction. I look forward to seeing who President-elect Obama nominates for this critical position.
Also to note, there is a rare Senate vote scheduled for Sunday regarding a lands & ocean bills package (S.22) and I encourage everyone to contact their Senators and ask them to vote for cloture (to cut off debate) and to support this critical bill. There is more information regarding the bill below in our Congressional News section.
There will be many challenges ahead in 2009 and changes are occurring quickly, but my sense is that we are poised to take advantage of the many opportunities that these times present. We need to be flexible and act quickly, but thoughtfully. This is a time to have a significant impact on something very important for future generations – learning, communicating and advocating how 71% of this planet works. Happy New Year.
