When Will President Clinton Stop Trading Away Our Ocean Protection Laws?

In mid-June, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore flew to Monterey, California for a two-day mediafest to tout the "Year of the Ocean" and showcase Clinton's alleged commitment to protect the sea. Outside the National Ocean's Conference, Earth Island Institute handed out a list of "ocean-deadly" policies promulgated by the White House.

David Phillips, Director of Earth Island's International Marine Mammal Project charged that "the Clinton Administration, time after time, has chosen commerce and environmentally irresponsible policies over the protection of our oceans. The oceans are in trouble and the Clinton Administration has offered little more than words to protect them."

Earth Island cited several examples of how Clinton's actions have harmed the oceans and marine life, including:

• The Administration actively worked to overturn dolphin protection laws in Congress, enabling foreign fishing fleets to double the number of dolphins killed in tuna nets;

• The Administration buckled before the World Trade Organization, which encourages foreign countries to continue killing endangered sea turtles in shrimp nets;

• The Administration refuses to impose trade sanctions against countries that continue illegal whaling; and

• The Administration has failed to implement the federal Endangered Species Act to protect disappearing salmon and steelhead along the Pacific Coast.

"The Clinton Administration would rather cave in to arbitrary World Trade Organization rules than protect endangered sea turtles from drowning unnecessarily in shrimp nets," noted Todd Steiner, director of Earth Island's Sea Turtle Restoration Project. "It is incredible that the Administration is seriously considering paying reparations to nations that continue to kill sea turtles, instead of standing up to these renegade countries."

Peter Fugazzotto, director of Earth Island's Global Salmon Project, complained that the White House "has ignored the plight of endangered salmon populations on the West Coast, has dragged its feet in putting these fragile species under the protection of the federal Endangered Species List, and has had the gall to recommend shooting sea lions and seals in order to boost the sagging fish populations, which are declining due to destructive federal water and forestry policies on salmon spawning streams."