US gets C- on ocean protection

WASHINGTON -- The United States made modest progress on protecting its oceans last year, but still needs to boost funding for desperately needed changes, a commission on ocean policy said yesterday.

Overall, the United States was given a "C-" from the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, a collaboration between the US Commission on Ocean Policy and the privately funded Pew Oceans Commission. That was a slight improvement over the "D+" on the commission's report card for 2005.

President Bush last week proposed an 8 percent increase in the $1.75 billion federal budget for coastal and marine conservation programs. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would get most of the additional $143 million budget request.

"Certainly the president has been, and is still, committed to ocean conservation," said Kristen Hellmer, spokeswoman for the White House Council for Environmental Quality. "He's got new funding for ocean initiatives."

Panel leaders praised the states as "important champions" for oceans in 2006, citing initiatives in New York and Washington as well as regional pacts on ocean management for the West Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

The joint commission praised Congress and the Bush administration for winning passage of "long-overdue" federal fisheries reform, but warned that more needs to be done. It said strides made last year to safeguard the nation's imperiled oceans were undercut by a lack of funding at all levels of government.