Sam Farr: “I embarked on a sea odyssey over 4 years ago to pass the Oceans Act to establish a commission modeled after the Stratton…”

“I embarked on a sea odyssey over 4 years ago to pass the Oceans Act to establish a commission modeled after the Stratton Commission, which was a commission that met over 30 years ago. If one thinks about it, most of the instrumentation we use to measure weather, measure the ocean, measure fisheries management has all been invented since the Stratton Commission dissolved. We know a lot more now than we did then. Yet, we do not have a national policy on how this country ought to look into the 21st century about an ocean strategy. That is what this bill does. It really is a tribute to the hard work, bipartisan work of the gentleman from New Jersey (Chairman Saxton); members of the Committee on Resources, including the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), ranking member; and others on that committee. We know everything there is to know about the Moon, the entire Moon, the back side, top side, front side. We know very, very little, very, very little, less than 5 percent of what the ocean floor of the world is. The ocean floor of the Earth is 76 percent of the Earth. That is unknown: the canyons, the rivers, the volcanoes, the sulfuric vents, the depths, the heights.…”