[Nhcoll-l] Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2012 impacts on scientific research

[Jay R. Cordeiro]

Greetings listserve members, friends, colleagues, and others who have
responded to my inquiry about coral reef regulations. 

 

I have received many responses and inquiries about the Coral Reef
Wildlife International Trade Act Amendment of 2012
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr738/text.  

Below is a summary of the responses I received:

 

-          Bill was introduced by Congresswoman Bordallo and an inquiry
to her office was made (Rebecca Jablonski :  rjablon at mail.house.gov)

-          Some initial interpretation: (3)(D)(i) and (ii) were
interpreted by one commenter as vessels conducting permitted scientific
research must take care to not damage reefs too, but could be allowed to
damage them under certain permitted activities and explicit permissions
to cause damage by those means (sampling or collecting; and destruction,
loss, or injury that is the result of a vessel grounding, scraping,
anchor damage, excavation, etc.)

-          It "appears" that the intent of the bill is not to target
scientific research and collecting, although the Senate version is
slightly different

-          The bill is not likely to proceed as both House and Senate
are tied up with other matters 

-          We are working together with the author of the bill to clean
up the language

-           

-           

AND FINALLY: Response from from Shannon Simpson, the Coral Program's
Congressional Affairs and Legislative Coordinator

John Christensen has asked me as the Coral Program's Congressional
Affairs and Legislative Coordinator and the lead for the CRCA
reauthorization to address these concerns.  A few things:

 

1) The bill mentioned/referenced in the email at the beginning of this
chain is House bill H.R.738 and is called "Coral Reef Conservation Act
Reauthorization and Enhancement Amendments of 2011".  It was introduced
in February of 2011 to reauthorize the CRCA of 2000 by Rep. Bordallo and
is not designed to address coral reef wildlife trade, domestic or
international. The House Natural Resources Committee has taken no action
on this bill since it was introduced. 

 

2) The only coral trade bill I am aware of is one that Senator Inouye is
working on, but that may not get introduced until next congress. The
current congress ends at the end of calendar year 2012. As always I will
continue to provide updates on this in our NOAA Coral Collaboration
meetings.

 

3) The H.R.738 exemption language for "bona fide marine scientific
research" referenced in the email chain forwarded to John and causing
some concern to those on this email was lifted from the Senate version
to reauthorize the CRCA of 2000 (S.46) introduced by Sen. Inouye in
January 2011. However, it appears that the word "excessive" which occurs
in S.46 in conjunction with "sampling or collecting" was left out of
H.R.738 and should read as follows:

 

 '(C) the necessary result of bona fide marine scientific research
(including marine scientific research activities approved by Federal,
State, or local permits), other than--

 

             '(i) excessive sampling or collecting; and

             '(ii) destruction, loss, or injury that is a result of a
vessel grounding, a vessel scraping, anchor damage, or excavation that
is not authorized by a Federal or State permit; or'

 

NOTE: The Senate language referenced above was actually written by NOAA
several years ago in an Administration bill coordinated by the Coral
Program and vetted through the matrix. The intent of exemption (C) to
the prohibited activities is to avoid the need for an additional
permitting program and to insure a minimal affect on current marine
scientific research activities.

 

FYI, S.46 was passed by the Senate Commerce Committee in May of 2011 and
no further action has been taken. Since the end of calendar year 2012
and therefore the end of the current 2 year congress (112th Congress) is
fast approaching and given it's an election year, it is highly unlikely
that either of these bills, S.46 or H.R.738, will be signed into law
before we transition into a new congress at the beginning of 2013. At
the end of the 2 year life of a particular Congress, the slate gets
cleared and all bills that have not been signed into law go the the
graveyard. At that point the process starts all over again.  In order to
live on they must be reintroduced in the new congress and run the
gauntlet of steps again including introduction, passage through
subcommittee and full committee, passage by the full house the bill
originated in, conference with the other house (can sometimes occur
before the previous step thereby rendering the previous step
unnecessary), passage by both Senate and House, then the ultimate goal
of being signed by the president.  

 

Back to the issue at hand, I will bring the omission of "excessive" in
H.R.738 to the attention of NOAA Legislative Affairs with the intent to
raise this issue with the House Natural Resources Committee and Rep.
Bordallo to determine if this was intentional or just a mistake. 

 

For more information on either the Senate (S.46) or House (H.R.738)
bills to reauthorize the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 please
visit the NOAA Coral Program webpage at the link below (from main page
at www.coralreef.noaa.gov <http://www.coralreef.noaa.gov/>  go to "About
CRCP" under "Future Strategy")

 

http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcrcp/strategy/reauthorization/welcome.htm
l 

 

or by looking up each of the bill numbers (ex. H.R.738) at the Library
of Congress website below. Just choose "bill number" and plug in the
appropriate combination of letters and numbers as indicated above.

 

http://thomas.loc.gov <http://thomas.loc.gov/> 

 

Always happy to answer any questions regarding this

 

I will keep you all informed as this issue progresses.

 

Jay

 

Jay Cordeiro

University of Massachusetts Boston

And 

Northeast Natural History & Supply

jay.cordeiro at umb.edu

 

 

 

 

From: Jay R. Cordeiro 
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 9:16 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu; 'esb at fws.gov';
'FISH-SCI at SEGATE.SUNET.SE'; crust-l at vims.edu; 'IUCN World Conservation
Congress'
Subject: Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2012 impacts on scientific
research

 

Hello list members, colleagues, and friends

 

Has anyone heard of the Coral Reef Wildlife International Trade and
Conservation Act of 2012?  Apparently it is a proposal by legislator
Bordallo to re-authorize and amend the Coral Reef Conservation Act of
2000.  I have read through the act and am concerned about a line item
that will likely affect scientific collecting on coral reefs in U.S.
waters.  A complete description of the act, as proposed, can be found
here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr738/text. 

 

The line item in reference is Sec. 206 (Emergency Response Actions), (e)
Liability for Costs and Damages to Coral Reefs, (3) Examptions, (C) the
necessary result of bona fide marine scientific research (including
marine scientific research activities approved by Federal, State, or
local permits), other than--'(i) sampling or collecting

 

Am I reading too much into this or does this specifically prohibit any
collecting of scientific specimens on U.S. coral reefs?  Note the
amendment also lumps any coral reef within the jurisdiction of the U.S.
or any state as a National Marine Sanctuary regardless of whether it has
formally designated as such.

 

Looking forward to responses.  If possible, could you all cc me directly
with your responses?  Sometimes listserve messages do not always reach
me.  Also, please pass this around.

 

Jay Cordeiro

University of Massachusetts

And 

Northeast Natural History & Supply

jay.cordeiro at umb.edu

 

 

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