“America is and always has been an oceanic society. From the Bering Sea Land-bridge to the Jamestown settlement to the processing lines of Ellis Island we have been a tempest tossed people, a saltwater people, a coastal people. We have lived well on the abundance of our seas and coastlines from the earliest canoe tribes setting fish-traps along the Jersey shore, to today’s giant gantry crane operators unloading container ships at the Port of Long Beach.

As the Pew Oceans Commission report and U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy draft report emphasize, America owes much of its wealth, bounty and heritage to the blue in our red, white and blue. It provides us the oxygen we need to breath, is a driver of climate and weather, brings rain to our farmers and food to our tables. It provides us recreation, transportation, protein, medicine, energy, security, and a sense of awe and wonder in the unmatched beauty of our blue marble planet.

But, as the two commissions also point out, our living waters are today endangered by a cascading series of environmental threats. In response we need to develop and expand not only our scientific understanding of the seas but also an active and educated political constituency to protect the oceans’ natural resources for ourselves and for the future.

That is why we’ve come here together in the heat of summer, far from our beloved shores (but well within the Chesapeake Bay watershed that still connects us to the sea) for the first ever ‘Blue Vision Summit.’

Dedicated watermen and waterwomen, working together over the next few days can begin to make a change, can create the first ripples in a rising tide of citizen action for the protection, exploration and restoration of our living seas. We already know there are common sense solutions that can work.

Protecting and restoring our nation’s seas makes sense both morally and economically. Healthy, bountiful seas will help assure vibrant coastal communities and economies. Just as broad sectors of the nation mobilized in the last century for passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts that have helped revitalize our environment, and improved the quality of our lives, we are now ready to mobilize our fellow citizens to protect, maintain and restore the health of our public oceans from sea to shining sea.”

The Organizers – Blue Vision Conference

Please click here for the 2004 Blue Vision Summit Agenda.