Harmful Algal Blooms And Hypoxia Research And Control Amendments Act Of 2010
Floor Speech
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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I'm very pleased to rise in strong support of H.R. 3650. I call this the ``red tide'' bill. I would like to thank my colleague Mr. Baird for his great leadership on this initiative.
I've heard some discussion here in the Chamber and throughout the Capitol the last couple of days, Why are we taking up time with algae? Well, let's not diminish the issue because this is vitally important for jobs throughout the great State of Florida. I am very pleased that my colleague from Florida is in the Chair this morning to preside over this.
We simply can't go backwards when it comes to jobs in our economy, and red tide is a significant threat to the tourism economy in the State of Florida. We depend in Florida upon people coming from all over the country and all over the world to vacation, especially on the beautiful beaches of the west coast of Florida, where you have the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. There are no better beaches across the entire world than there are on the west coast of Florida. Now, also, on the Atlantic side it is quite lovely and the Florida Keys, but we face a significant threat from red tide.
The tourism industry in Florida employs over 1 million people, and it is estimated that tourism has a $65 billion impact on our State's economy. Add on top of that recreational fishing, commercial fishing. What happens when this red tide washes in, it's awful. The tourists flee the beaches, and the folks that live and work and rely upon those industries really suffer. This happened just a few years ago in 2005. We had terrible red tide outbreaks on the west coast of Florida. And I can tell you because I had my family there at the beach with about a dozen other families where we go right after school is out. And what happens is that it causes you a lot of difficulty breathing. Your eyes start to water, the fish wash up on the shore, dead fish. And you can forget about it. Our economy took a real hit because of red tide. The tourists simply don't want to visit polluted beaches. We have beautiful, clean, crystal clear water most of the time. But when this red tide invades, it's absolutely awful. You can see where it's directly tied to jobs because then the word spreads. There were news stories over in England and Great Britain, where a lot of our tourists come from, and they decided not take their vacation. Now, if that happened in this economy, it would be very detrimental. So today's legislation will help us combat that threat.
And I would like to especially thank my colleague from Florida, Representative Connie Mack, who represents the Naples, Sanibel Island area. There is simply no more beautiful place to vacation than maybe up towards my district in Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island. But Congressman Mack and I have been working on this issue since 2007. He was working on it before I arrived in Congress, and we introduced the Save Our Shores Act to bring more attention to the research on red tide. That's why I am so gratified that the Science Committee, Mr. Baird and Mr. Barton, have really stepped up and promoted this. It's a bipartisan effort. And it's important because it comes on the heels of the tourism bill, the Travel Promotion Act that was signed into law by President Obama just last week. It's another good bolstering of the tourism economy and all those important jobs to the Sunshine State and across the country.
Now, this legislation will ensure that we learn more about harmful algal blooms so that we can protect our precious coastlines and the tourism-related jobs that come with having healthy beaches. According to the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, the national economic impact of the red tide, the harmful algal blooms, is at least $82 million annually. So if we can pump in a little bit of research money and figure out what causes this--you see, that's the problem. We don't really know what causes the red tide and the algal blooms. If we're already suffering an $82 million hit, then it is very cost-effective for us to put a little bit more money into research and coordination. There's a lot of good research out there, but I don't think that it's being shared widely. So this initiative will help do that. And I think we'll be able to avoid devastating losses to tourism, to recreation and to commercial fishing all across the country.
In 1971, Florida faced an exceptionally bad case of red tide, and then again in 2005, and we think that that caused Florida to take a hit of over $100 million. So the level of concern about red tide's cost to tourism is still high even though it's been a couple of years since our last big outbreak. But like I said, if we had an outbreak today in this economy, it would severely hurt businesses at a time when we just can't take it anymore. The unemployment rate in my community is about 13 percent, and we rely on folks needing some relaxation time and vacations in the beautiful Sunshine State. So that's why I strongly support this initiative.
Again, I want to thank my colleagues, Representative Mack from Florida, Mr. Baird, the Science and Technology Committee, and I am pleased to urge all my colleagues to vote for H.R. 3650.
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