KEYNOTE ADDRESS: HOW CONGRESS VIEWS ESTUARIES 

 Kieth Ozmore 

 Environmental Consultant to Congressman Robert Eckhardt, Texas 



First, I want to thank the U.S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service for the 

 invitation to present the keynote 

 address at this most important sym- 

 posium, and to commend the Coastal 

 Ecosystems Project for sponsoring it. 

 In my estimation, there is no more 

 important area in the Nation than its 

 estuaries, and none which faces 

 greater dangers. 



My presentation today will deal 

 primarily with two facets of the 

 situation: the view from a congres- 

 sional perspective; and the view of 

 the value of those estuaries, from a 

 member of Congress who represents a 

 District which borders on the Galves- 

 ton Bay System, one of the most pro- 

 ductive estuarine systems in America. 



I note that my presentation is 

 entitled "How Congress Views Estua- 

 ries." I wish that I could tell you 

 this morning that Congress views the 

 estuaries the same as you and I. But 

 that is simply not the case. It was 

 not so long ago, when the House was 

 considering a bill to gut the Section 

 404 permit program, that a prominent, 

 influential member of Congress made 

 this statement on the floor: "To 

 hell with fish ... let's look out for 

 people . " 



What this member failed to rec- 

 ognize is that when we are looking 

 out for shrimp, menhaden, blue crab, 

 speckled trout and redfish, we are, 

 indeed, looking out for people--just 

 the same as we are looking out for 

 people when we pass legislation to 

 help the farmer make his land more 



productive for protein matter. Most 

 of those attending this symposium 

 already know that our estuaries are 

 extremely productive of protein. Our 

 problem is how to deliver this 

 information to those public officials 

 far inland—Denver , Frankfort, or Des 

 Moines . 



Several years ago, when Texas A 

 & M University inaugurated its course 

 "Special Topics in Coastal Zone Man- 

 agement," Robert Knecht, at that time 

 Director of the Federal Office of 

 Coastal Zone Management, was one of 

 the guest lecturers. A member of my 

 staff who had recently attended a na- 

 tional oceanic conference along with 

 Mr. Knecht in Seattle, Washington, 

 was driving the agency official to 

 A & M and they got into a conversa- 

 tion on the importance of coastal 

 zone management. My staff member com- 

 mented that this Nation did not need 

 coastal zone management or oceanic 

 conferences in Seattle, Boston and 

 Savannah--it needed such conferences 

 in far-flung inland cities, and Mr. 

 Knecht agreed. 



In looking over the preliminary 

 program for this symposium, I am 

 quite impressed at the expertise of 

 those making presentations. It is 

 encouraging that this symposium is 

 being held inland—but not too far 

 inland. In fact, hundreds of San 

 Antonio residents commute back and 

 forth to the coast for salt-water 

 fishing and waterfowl hunting. I 

 would like to suggest that additional 

 symposia be held, but that they be 

 scheduled perhaps in state capitals 



