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House Approves Bill to Strengthen New Jersey’s Coastal Areas
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Washington, DC – The House of Representatives Thursday voted to approve the Clean Estuaries Act which will improve the health of New Jersey’s water ways and coastal areas, both of which are major economic drivers for the state.
The bipartisan legislation will fund water quality improvement and habitat restoration in areas that will improve the transition zones between fresh water from rivers and salt water from the ocean. In addition this bill will protect and create jobs. Several estuary programs in New Jersey will benefit from the funding in this legislation including Barnegat Bay, the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary and the New York-New Jersey Harbor.
“Thousands of New Jersey’s jobs, including commercial and recreational fishermen, are tied to the strength of the state’s coastal areas,” said Pallone. “This bill helps to ensure both the waterways and jobs remain in place to the benefit of future generations.”
Estuaries provide habitat for more than 75% of America's commercial fish catch, and for 80-90 percent of the recreational fish catch. Estuarine-dependent fisheries are among the most valuable across the nation, estimated to be worth billions of dollars. In New Jersey, saltwater fishing generated more than $643 million in sales and supported more than 9,900 jobs in 2006, according to an economic report released by NOAA’s Fisheries Service.
In addition to fishing, estuaries also provide significant economic value for New Jersey through sectors such as tourism, energy production, and navigation. An impaired estuary not only impacts commercial and recreational fishing, it can also result in decreased tourism, among other factors.
Click here for a map of the affected estuary areas http://bit.ly/cmiIlX. |
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