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Coastal recreation and tourism attract millions of visitors each 

 year. Our commercial and recreational fishing industries are 

 dependent on the health of coastal habitat. In some areas of the 

 country, over 75 percent of total commercial landings and 80 to 

 90 percent of the recreational catch comes from species that are 

 dependent on coastal habitats during some point of their life 

 cycle. Seventeen million Americans use these waters for 

 recreational fishing, generating $18 billion annually in economic 

 activity in equipment and tourist related sectors. 



Yet those same activities and growth have significantly 

 contributed to the degraded condition of coastal ecosystems, 

 resulting in declines of fisheries stocks, increased mortality 

 and morbidity of marine mammals, and reductions in the quality of 

 life for coastal inhabitants through pollution or the spread 

 water-borne bacteria. 



The Plan proposes a five point program to improve the health of 

 coastal ecosystems. 



First, we plan to integrate coastal ecosystem management 

 with other Federal and state agencies. By 2005, we hope to have 

 35 federally-approved state coastal management programs. We will 

 be working with the States to strengthen their efforts in 

 addressing cumulative effects on a watershed/receiving basin 

 basis and on developing and implementing coastal nonpoint source 



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