Today, March 30, 2009 close to 3:30 pm, President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 into law!
The package includes many important initiatives that oceans folks like me have been working to realize for a very long time including ocean exploration, NOAA undersea research, ocean and coastal mapping integration, the integrated coastal and ocean observation system, federal ocean acidification research and monitoring, coastal and estuarine land conservation, and more!
Congratulations everyone! This is a historic day. The news is encouraging and now we must stay vigilant as there is plenty more to be done.
Finally, on a personal note… After so many years of hard work, this goes out to Sea Grant Fellows past and present, the good folks inhabiting NOAA’s Silver Spring offices, and all the incredible staffers I know working tirelessly on these issues behind the scenes in our nation’s capitol.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Thank YOU for all your hard work on this. A glass of wine raised in your direction from London!
March 30th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Windeed.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Excellent news; congratulations to everyone involved.
Nice fishies – but aren’t they from the other side of the planet, or does this 2-legged piscevore just have a delusion that all fishes look the same?
March 30th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
You’ll find these species in the tropics, although this is a computer generated image. Shifting baselines have resulted in relatively empty oceans–and sadly most of us accept the current status as pristine having no memory of what has been lost.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Great news indeed!
Keep up the good work.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
@Sheril: I agree, what a lot of people see as ‘pristine’ is far from it. I’ve revisited beaches that I used to go snorkelling at as a child and all the beautiful coral is gone, most of the varieties of fishes I used to swim with are gone, and even much of the sand has gone (dug up to provide sand for construction work), but tourists regularly exclaim what a paradise it is; what a painful irony.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Woo-hoo! Great work, everyone!
March 31st, 2009 at 12:04 am
Reminds me of the stunning Georgia Aquarium.
March 31st, 2009 at 1:56 am
Congratulations!
March 31st, 2009 at 8:35 am
[...] Blogs / The Intersection « WIN!!! [...]
March 31st, 2009 at 6:06 pm
[...] An astute commenter pointed out this is authorizing language, not appropriation, so don’t get too excited. Not sure exactly, but it sounds important, perhaps in reference to teh Budget. Sheril has the scoop over at the Intersection. [...]
April 7th, 2009 at 9:28 am
[...] oxygen origin in education A sad fail for globalization At last a win for the sea But did whaling contributed to [...]
April 29th, 2009 at 8:41 am
[...] the Stimulus to the Omnibus, from the specter of climate change to the change of Specter, from the economy to confirmations, in [...]