Build Back Better: Cleaner Oceans

To protect our oceans and coastal communities, we need to reverse the decades-long trend towards ocean industrialization and privatization, and restore critical marine ecosystems. To build back better, we need to:

Regulate shipping

The shipping industry must be regulated at the state, federal and international levels.

The pandemic laid bare the greedy business model of the international shipping sector, particularly the cruise ship industry, which relies on offshore havens for evading taxes and regulations and outdated rules allowing dumping of toxic pollution into our oceans and communities.

Curb industrial fish farming

We must curb the expansion of industrial finfish aquaculture.

Also known as “floating factory farms,” industrial finfish aquaculture can contaminate waters with pharmaceuticals, toxic chemicals, untreated waste, and disease; while threatening wild fish populations and natural ecosystems.

Protect our oceans from fossil fuels

Congress must institute policies that protect our oceans from fossil fuel pollution.

An easy first step would be for the federal government to reinstate the crude oil export ban that would prevent the US from exporting most types of crude oil to other countries. Another important area would be to address plastics, which are made from fossil fuels. Plastics not only litter our oceans and harm wildlife, but they poison communities living around petrochemical plants.

Protect marine sanctuaries

The federal government must protect and expand our marine sanctuaries and monuments.

We must reverse efforts to shrink our marine protected areas, expand existing sanctuaries and approve new protected areas in our oceans to prevent fossil fuel extraction and shipping industry dumping, preserve wild fisheries, and protect endangered and threatened marine species.