You're welcome to accuse Paul Holthus of lying. I think that's what you are doing. Can you find any real proof?
Anyway, here is the Congressman's Introductory Speech:
SPEECH OF HONORABLE ED CASE OF HAWAII IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES - THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2004
• Mr. Speaker, every once in awhile I am deeply grateful for an action I am able to take that is both long overdue and truly needed. That is how I feel now as I introduce the Coral Reef Conservation and Protection Act of 2004.
• My childhood was spent among the rich diversity of the coral reef ecosystems of my native Island of Hawaii. It was a time of budding wonder at what nature had wrought, the living corals and other reef life existing in mutual dependency and sustainability. But just weeks ago, when I returned, as I often do, now with my children, to those same reefs, they're not what they were. Still beautiful, yes; still wondrous. But there is not the same diversity of coral nor the same luster; the fish and other marine life not as plentiful nor diverse; the presence of new, alien species is apparent.
• Of course, there are simply more of us in those marine environments than there were, and so our cumulative impact over my 50 years in those waters has become apparent, even at the level of recreational and subsistence use. But it's more, for these reefs have become a significant business, their coral exoskeletons, their living cre
ators, and the shells and fish that live in and among them valuable collectors' items for the aquariums and curio shops of the world. And the purposeful and accidental introduction of marine invasives in isolated instances over the last decades have magnified into a critical mass of statewide presence and threat.
• In relevant terms, though, we in Hawaii are among the lucky ones, for at least we still have living, albeit threatened, coral reefs, with declining but at least remaining marine life. At least we have marginally protective state laws, and a culture of arguable sustainability.
• But in much of the rest of the marine world, especially throughout the temperate zones of the Pacific and beyond, the world of the coral reef is past endangered and into destroyed, wiped out by a wave of commercial overfishing, overcollecting, dynamiting, cyanide poisoning, and other forms of ecological pillage. In these worlds, laws do not exist to provide even minimum protections or, if they do, they are spurned.
• Some say that that's their business; what do we care if they wreck their marine ecosystems? First, of course, in today's interdependent world, our global environment is everyone's business. But beyond that, we can't turn our backs because we are the chief facilitator; ours is the largest market for the products of this stripping of the world's coral reefs.
• None of this is new: we have known all of this for decades. We have even set out to do something about it. In 1973, we became a party to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which sought to clamp down on endangered species trafficking. But although some of our world's coral reef life has been designated as covered under it, the enforcement mechanisms are frankly ineffective.
• More recently, in 1998 President Clinton issued the Coral Reef Protection Executive Order (#13098) establishing the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. That entity was directed to strengthen our stewardship and conservation of our country's reef ecosystems, and to assess our role in the international coral reef products trade with the goal of taking actions to promote conservation and sustainable use of coral reefs worldwide.
• The Task Force conducted its evaluations, made its reports, and outlined what was needed. That was in large part comprehensive legislation to institute common protective standards for our nation's coral reefs, but, equally important, rules to discourage international coral reef abuse and encourage sustainable practices by allowing imports only of non-endangered products collected by sustainable practices and pursuant to integrated management plans.
• The Coral Reef Conservation and Protection Act of 2004 I gratefully introduce today embodies the principal directions of the Task Force and more. It establishes a comprehensive scheme for the domestic and international protection of our world's coral reef ecosystems. The regime's key ingredients are the disallowal of any domestic taking, transport in interstate commerce, or import of the endangered marine life of our coral reefs, unless that life is collected in non-destructive ways or subject to sustainable management plans or otherwise exempted from coverage by administrative actions.
• Mr. Speaker, we have to start somewhere; our world's coral reefs are crying out for our help. This bill is that start, and I urge its prompt deliberation and passage.
• Mahalo, and aloha!