There is startling new evidence from around the world that our oceans, and the life they support, are in a state of collapse. A recent study in the scientific journal Nature found that because of industrialized fishing, 90 percent of large fish, such as tuna, swordfish, sharks, and cod, have now vanished from the world's oceans.

The extent of this collapse is disturbing, but even worse is the lack of any coherent effort to remedy the underlying problems afflicting our seas. For too long, we've ignored what goes on out there, beyond our shores and beneath the waves.

But this summer the Pew Oceans Commission, on which I served, released the most wide-ranging appraisal of U.S. oceans in 30 years. The commission was composed of fishermen, scientists, elected officials, and environmentalists -- people with very different points of view -- who spent three years investigating what's wrong with our oceans and who became united in their determination to restore our ailing seas to health.

All of us found plenty to be concerned about. In some areas, coastal development is eating up land at a rate five times faster than the population is growing. Sixty billion pounds of unwanted fish and other marine life are discarded annually as a by-product of commercial fishing. Factory farms generate 500 million tons of manure each year (more than three times the amount that humans produce), much of it washing into our streams and rivers, which then carry it out to sea. The sad list goes on and on.

Much of this devastation is legal or at least goes unchecked by authorities. The commission discovered a woefully hodgepodge approach to dealing with these problems, which clearly isn't working. There are more than 140 laws and dozens of federal agencies governing our oceans, often at cross-purposes.

If we had simply sat in a conference room somewhere and pored over the data, we might have despaired, but instead we traveled from Hawaii to Alaska to South Carolina and met residents who, at the local level, are trying to protect the oceans. We went lobster fishing in Maine to see firsthand the efforts of fishermen to make the fishery sustainable. In places such as Des Moines and New Orleans, we talked with farmers, scientists, and local authorities about how the fertilizer put on the land flows inevitably into our rivers and harms marine life, and learned how smarter use of fertilizer can make a difference.

For me personally, it was a remarkable experience. The Pew Commission brought together groups that have often been in opposition, but in the end were able to sit down cooperatively, study the facts, and come up with a comprehensive plan to help save our oceans. We at NRDC are focusing our efforts on three of the most critical issues addressed by the Pew report. First, we're advocating the creation of an overarching national policy to protect and restore the oceans, and an independent, cabinet-level oceans agency to administer it. Second, we're continuing our campaign to stop destructive fishing practices, such as bottom-trawling in sensitive areas, which not only decimate fish populations but also destroy the habitat necessary for their recovery. And third, we're working to help create marine reserves -- protected areas of ocean that have a proven record of increasing the number, size, and diversity of fish within their borders in as little as five years of protection.

A century ago, Teddy Roosevelt helped forge a conservation ethic for our land. We need to extend that ethic to our seas. The commission has crafted the blueprint. Now we need Congress, the Bush administration, and the American public to work together to implement it.

John H. Adams
President