Due to this crisis ninety percent of large predatory fish are now gone. There is a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, created by an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen fertilizer carried by the Mississippi River from America’s hinterland, that has grown to an area roughly the size of Massachusetts.
It is noticed that nearly 90 percent of U.S. wetlands have vanished due to development, and twenty-six thousand of the country’s beaches have been temporarily closed or put under advisories because of pollution. These show that the oceans of America are in serious trouble. In a report published by the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative (JOCI) it has mentioned a series of excellent recommendations that include strengthening science- and ecosystem-based approaches to ocean management and developing a sorely needed national ocean policy.
It is fact the ocean governance has been sectoral. Gone are the days when ocean policy could be approached sector-by-sector and resource-by-resource. New management systems must look at entire ocean and coastal ecosystems and be able to make sound decisions about how, where, and to what degree activities such as fishing, coastal development, and energy production will take place within those networks.
The Joint Ocean Commission Initiative recommends that the president appoint a high-level adviser on ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes issues equal in rank to the chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality.
