America’s Living Oceans:
Charting a Course for Sea Change
The
article America’s Living Oceans was
written by the Pew Oceans Commission in May of 2003. The article starts by
pointing out how important the oceans are and how dependent we, and all living
things, are upon them. It then goes into detail about how poorly we have been
treating them, and the problems that this is causing. It briefly speaks of the “hodgepodge of ocean
laws and programs that do not provide unified, clearly stated goals and
measurable objectives”, what successes and failures they have had, and how they
are not as effective as they were thirty years ago. They strongly believe that
change must occur in order for future generation to be able to enjoy the
benefits of a healthy ocean, which is a main objective of their organization.
They have traveled along the coastal regions to determine the problems and try
to find solutions. They have also come up with a list of objectives to help the
ocean and a list of recommendations to meet these goals.
This
was an interesting and well-written article that I think should be read by many
people. I learned a lot from reading it, including the existence of the Pew
Oceans Commission and their objectives. From what they said, I think that they
are doing very important work, and deserve the full support the US government
and people. One thing that I think could be improved upon is in their
objectives to rescue the ocean. I thought that their objective list was
incomplete and that much could be added to it, along with their recommendations
to meet these objectives. The fact that I found most interesting in this
article was the dependence of the economy on the ocean’s health. Before the
beginning of this class I have never thought about how the ocean’s health
affects anything other than the fish and the amount of litter on the beach.
This article has given me a stronger understanding of ocean related problems
and regulations.
