 | Encourage Congress To Protect Marine Mammals |
Over the last two days, I have talked about the need to protect animals in the oceans - specifically, bluefin tuna and sharks. Of course, it’s not just the fish that are suffering in the oceans.
Marine mammals are also in big trouble. Many of them are close to the top of the marine food chain, and when smaller marine animals suffer, they have problems too. It doesn’t help that the Japanese are now conducting whale hunts again. Marine mammals all around the world are in danger of extinction.
The Republicans in the White House are actually working to make matters worse. They’ve broken the law and refused to make an endangered species act designation for one marine mammal - the polar bear. George W. Bush wanted to arrange the leases of oil and gas drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea without having the Endangered Species Act get in the way, and as always, the big oil corporations got their way. Another marine mammal, the grey whale, goes to the Chukchi Sea in the summer to feed, and they’ve been seen starving so badly that their ribs can be seen.
So, some people in Congress are trying to do something about the problem. At the end of January, Congressman Neil Abercrombie introduced H.R. 5106, the National Marine Mammal Research Program Act of 2007. The law would, as the name suggests, would support and coordinate marine mammal research, with annual reports to Congress so that appropriate measures to prevent a collapse of marine mammal populations can be taken.
This is serious stuff. There’s an ecological crisis in the oceans taking place, and many human communities are already feeling the impact here on land.
Sadly, only three members of the House of Representatives have cosponsored Abercrombie’s bill. They are:
Steve Cohen
James Langevin
James Moran
Daily activism: Please help this good legislation get the help it deserves. Call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Ask to speak to your representative in the House, and tell that representative’s office that you want to see your representative’s name as a cosponsor on H.R. 5106.
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An update on The Green Man’s post: there are now seven cosponsors of H.R. 5106, which is an improvement but nowhere near the mass of support needed for this bill to progress. Current cosponsors are:
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9] - 2/14/2008
Rep Faleomavaega, Eni F.H. [AS] - 4/23/2008
Rep Fortuno, Luis G. [PR] - 4/8/2008
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7] - 5/5/2008
Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15] - 4/8/2008
Rep Langevin, James R. [RI-2] - 2/14/2008
Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8] - 2/14/2008
“AS” stands for American Samoa and “PR” for Puerto Rico, the places two of the cosponsors represent as non-voting delegates to Congress. Interesting to me are the cosponsorships of Steve Cohen and Raul Grijalva, who are cosponsoring despite the considerable distance of their districts from any ocean mammals.
Comment by Jim — 5/12/2008 @ 12:22 am