Oceans: Mediocrity at best

As a trading nation and a land where roughly half of the population lives within 50 miles of a coast, the United States has an extraordinary interest in good policies regarding the oceans. But we're doing utterly mediocre work on fisheries, the environment and international controls on ocean resources.

A recent report card on U.S. ocean policy gave leaders a C grade. That's an embarrassingly modest gain from a C-minus, largely based on what states and regions are doing. For President Bush and Congress, the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative noted greater attention but fewer real gains.

One of the initiative's leaders, Puget Sound Partnership Chairman Bill Ruckelshaus, said the major shortcoming remains adequate funding, for implementing better fisheries policies and greater research. The administration has concentrated its requests for additional money on research, and Congress has shown interest. But funding has remained essentially flat. That's a problem for everything from climate change science to clean water efforts in Puget Sound, where Ruckelshaus said the scientific knowledge is far from ideal.

Bush and the Senate have also talked about finally ratifying the Law of the Sea Treaty. But nothing has happened, leaving us at sea as the world makes key ocean decisions and global warming raises new threats to coasts and ecosystems.