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clean up the beaches. And literally tons of waste material is gath- 

 ered by these volunteer citizens. Now, not all that has come from 

 cruise ships but a substantial portion of that has, and we wouldn't 

 have to have so many willing volunteers pick up so many tons of 

 material if we had had more people like you and your wife and 

 better enforcement. And so you have made a very significant con- 

 tribution to the welfare of the Gulf of Mexico waters, and I salute 

 you, and I know the whole committee is proud that you cared 

 enough to be here. Thank you very much. 



Mr. Tauzin. Al, before you leave, I wanted to clarify one point 

 for the record. The Coast Guard has a 1-800 number. I understand 

 it is set up for oil discharges and chemical discharges. It may not 

 yet now be set up for plastic discharges. It is now, Admiral Henn, 

 or is not? 



Admiral Henn. Mr. Chairman, the number has been advertised 

 for oil and hazardous materials violation reports. However, we are 

 now taking calls on plastic violations as well. 



Mr. Tauzin. Let me call it out then. The number is 1-800-424- 

 8802—1-800-424-8802. I see Al writing it down. I hope more and 

 more citizens write it down. Al, again, this committee thanks you 

 very much for your service to the country, and it is my hope that 

 the Court is very generous, and that you and your wife are proper- 

 ly rewarded. It is in my opinion that the Court would not have col- 

 lected very many of these dollar fines if it had not been for your 

 persistent effort, and that you and your wife are deserving of some 

 real thanks from this nation. Would you like any final comments 

 before we thank you and move on to the rest of the panel? 



Mr. Levett. The Subcommittee staff indicated to me that you 

 might ask a question concerning the reward and as it is outlined 

 under the law. The U.S. Attorney informed us that an escrow ac- 

 count of $250,000, half of the $500,000 fine, was established by the 

 Court. The funds, if to be awarded, will be distributed following a 

 Court hearing in West Palm Beach, Florida. We had also been 

 strongly advised that we might wish to retain counsel, and we 

 should let the Court know in advance or in writing as to our claim 

 against the funds. The U.S. Attorney also strongly suggested that 

 we attend the hearing. 



Frankly, we feel somewhat odd hiring an attorney for a matter 

 that we are being rewarded. The U.S. Attorney does not feel that it 

 is within his jurisdiction to recommend to the Court an award, and 

 as a result, we will be spending a considerable amount of our funds 

 on counsel, airline tickets, rental cars, hotels, to say nothing of va- 

 cation time. We didn't go into this for the money, but, frankly, the 

 lure of being rewarded and the funds being almost within our 

 grasp causes us to become speculators and invest in what we hope 

 will become a financially beneficial outcome. Additionally, who do 

 we turn to? Frankly, we could use some advice. Do we really need 

 an attorney? What kind of attorney is best suited? How do we 

 locate an attorney being out of state? 



The reward component of the law should be expanded, in our 

 opinion, to make it easier to work. If a witness did not feel that 

 they had a strong enough claim against the fund or were not able 

 to understand the system or are in any way reluctant to engage 



