US Oceans Panel Issues Alarming Report, Urges Safeguards

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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy released a massive and dismal report Tuesday detailing the degradation of the world's oceans, saying they're polluted, overfished and inattentively managed. The report offered more than 200 recommendations for improvement.

"Our oceans and our coasts are in trouble, and we as a nation have a historic opportunity to make a positive and lasting change in the way we manage them before it's too late," said retired Adm. James D. Watkins, the commission's chairman. Congress created the panel in 2000 to focus attention on ocean issues and management.

The study, the most comprehensive ocean survey in 35 years, notes that more than 37 million people and 19 million homes have been added to U.S. coastlines since the late 1960s. More than 40,000 acres of U.S. coastal wetlands a year are lost to development, according to the report, and more than half of the world's coral reefs may be gone in the next three decades."

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