Honoring Efforts To Create A Flight 93 Memorial

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding the time and commend my colleagues from Pennsylvania and New Jersey for this very thoughtful resolution. I would also like to speak to the previous resolution that just passed the House, establishing National Estuaries Day in recognition of these other beautiful and valued places across our country.

Our Nation's estuaries are essential to our economy, jobs, our hobbies and our culture. Estuaries are the vital links between our coastal ecosystems. They are the unique places where rivers and oceans meet, and their irreplaceable wetlands provide unmatched recreational opportunities and millions of jobs in tourism, fishing and other coastal industries.

This is especially true in my hometown of Tampa, Florida, where Tampa Bay provides the lifeblood and character of my community. A significant share of the Tampa Bay area's economy is dependent on our healthy estuary, and the same is true all across the United States, as 28 million jobs are supported through commercial and recreational fishing, boating, tourism, and other coastal industries. Coastal economies and estuaries contribute more than $800 billion annually in trade and commerce in our great country.

September 26 marked National Estuaries Day, an interagency campaign led by NOAA. Since 1988, NOAA has promoted the importance of estuaries and the need to protect them. So this year was the first time that we introduced a resolution to recognize these important educational and recreational events all across the country. Events occurred in North Carolina, in Florida, in Louisiana, in California. These celebrations ranged from the planting of seed grasses, the protection of marine mammals and other species.

Estuary groups from across the country also met here in the Capitol with representatives from NOAA, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Madam Speaker, Pat Conroy's new novel, ``South of Broad,'' contains elegant descriptions of estuaries that speak to everyone who values their beauty and riches. Conroy writes: ``A freshwater river let mankind drink and be refreshed, but a saltwater river let it return to first things, to moonstruck tides, the rush of spawning fish, the love of language felt in the rhythm of the wasp-waisted swells.''

He says: ``The tide is a poem that only time could create, and I watched its stream and brim and make its steady dash homeward to the ocean.'' It is difficult to capture the beauty and value of many of America's national treasures, so we ask the House today to set aside a day to raise awareness and educate others about estuaries, and getting people excited about the natural beauty to be found there.

I thank my colleagues for voting today in support of these goals and ideals.

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