Recognizing Capitol Hill Ocean Week

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, this week, hundreds of scientists, conservationists, explorers, students, and advocates from across the country are gathered here for the 25th anniversary of America's premier ocean policy event: Capitol Hill Ocean Week, or CHOW. This week marks 25 years of translating science into policy and cultivating partnerships to protect the coasts, fisheries, and habitats that sustain our economy and our world.

As our Nation marks its own 250th anniversary, this week challenges us to reckon with both the threats and opportunities we face as stewards of the ocean: to chart a course for the next 250 years by protecting the ocean because of its importance to our shared prosperity and to the planet.

Mr. Speaker, 250 miles above us, the International Space Station crosses the horizon every 90 minutes. From that vantage point, there are no borders, but there is a lot of blue. More than 70 percent of the Earth is ocean, providing habitat for thousands of known species, driving economies for coasts and nations, and regulating the climate effects on every harvest, port, and storm.

Down here at sea level, we are testing the limits of our blue world. The same waters that feed and connect us are warming, becoming more acidic, and rising faster than at any point in human history.

This Nation was built by the sea. Our maritime heritage runs through every port, fishing village, and coastal community. The science and tools we have built to help us steward our waters have saved countless lives, properties, and habitats. They are among this country's greatest achievements.

We jeopardize that resilience if we fail to manage ocean resources wisely. As climate change accelerates, shifting currents and migrating species are redrawing economic maps and straining international cooperation. These risks undermine trade, safety, and stewardship.

Nearly one-third of the seafood consumed in the United States is now tied to illegal or unreported fishing, a black-market industry worth up to $36 billion a year, often entangled with drug smuggling and forced labor. These networks plague ecosystems, weaken supply chains, undercut U.S. workers and businesses, and erode the rule of law.

The Trump administration is choosing to compound the risks and undermine the country's lead agency, NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, by shedding thousands of its workers and threatening to eliminate its research office. Belittling science in the name of modernization will erode our Nation's talent and further strain our oceans' resources.

Here is the good news. When we choose stewardship, it pays dividends. Every dollar invested in NOAA yields $112 in benefits--in jobs, in stability, and resilience. Ninety percent of the U.S. fisheries are now sustainably managed. American ocean science has stimulated an $827 billion blue economy that supports 3.3 million jobs. That didn't happen by accident. It happened because leaders worked together and kept focus through the countless partnerships that keep our coasts working and our ecosystems thriving.

I represent a significant part of the magnificent Oregon coast. When I visit, I see future ocean leadership, and I see what it can look like: fishers using real-time data to avoid depleted stocks, students mapping kelp forests that store more carbon per acre than any forest on land, and scientists working to research marine energy that can harness the power of the tides to keep the lights on.

Capitol Hill Ocean Week reflects these ambitions and calls us to realize them. That is the vision for future demands: science in service of security and cooperation in service of resilience.

That partnership means embracing the truth that conservation and competitiveness are not opposites. They are inseparable. The same science that restores coral reefs also protects coastal infrastructure. The same satellite technology that tracks illegal fishing also improves disaster response. The same diplomacy that defends marine ecosystems also deters instability and preserves human rights.

After 25 years of organized ocean advocacy, we know the challenges and are equipped with the solutions. What we need now is the shared resolve to turn that knowledge into action.

The ocean won't wait for our politics to calm. Its currents are eroding coastlines and economies. If we delay, we will cede precious resources and influence to those who would exploit both. If we act, we can turn climate risk into resilience by decarbonizing commerce, restoring blue carbon ecosystems, and expanding the industries that will define a sustainable century.

That is the challenge we face to make the ocean once again a source of unity rather than division, abundance rather than scarcity, and cooperation rather than conflict.

As co-chair of the bipartisan House Oceans Caucus, I have seen what is possible when we keep that focus. We have bridged party lines, brought agencies and industries to the same table, and shown that ocean health does not need to be partisan.

The scientists, fishers, explorers, and advocates here at Capitol Hill Ocean Week know that leadership, like the tide, is never still. The future of American prosperity and the blue planet depend on it.

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