This World Ocean Day, Urge Congress to Protect Marine Mammals from the Climate Crisis!
Dear John,
With disastrous floods, hurricanes, and wildfires occurring worldwide, signs of climate change are everywhere. While out of sight for many, changes are also occurring offshore that pose serious threats to the health and sustainability of our oceans and the marine mammals we cherish.
In 1972, Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) with two primary goals in mind: maintaining US marine mammal stocks at their optimum sustainable populations, and upholding the ecological role that marine mammals play in their ecosystems. A landmark piece of legislation, the MMPA sought to address numerous threats, such as hunting, international trade, habitat loss, vessel strikes, and bycatch in industrial fisheries. In order to do so, the MMPA made it illegal to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal.
While the MMPA was groundbreaking in its approach to ecosystem-based management, it was impossible for the lawmakers at the time to anticipate the cascade of threats that would arise from climate change just a few decades later. That is why Representative Julia Brownley (D-CA) has reintroduced the Marine Mammal Climate Change Protection Act. The bill would bolster existing marine mammal protection law by directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop climate impact management plans for at-risk populations, and implement strategies for mitigating the harm that climate change poses.