ONE BIOSPHERE
ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM
OUR STORY
Our One Biosphere is virtually encompassed by fresh and salt water.
Water is widely distributed on our One Biosphere as freshwater and salt water in the oceans. Our One Biosphere is known as the blue planet because, when seen from outer space, it expresses a blue color. The blue color is produced by reflection off the oceans which comprise over 70% of the surface of our One Biosphere.
On our One Biosphere, roughly 97% is salt water and 3% is fresh water. In terms of fresh water, less than 0.5% is in liquid form on the earth’s surface. The inner layers of our biosphere contain approximately 5 times more water than our biosphere’s surface waters, including all oceans, lakes, rivers and streams.
Lakes, rivers, wetland, streams and groundwater flow throughout our biosphere’s land masses. Water is essential for the growing of food, maintaining industry, recreation and transportation and providing hydration for living organisms, including ourselves. Water ecosystems provide habitats for plants, fish, animals and a variety of aquatic creatures.
At the same time, in order to ensure that water ecosystems maintain viability and that the supply of fresh water, we must meet myriad challenges, including water consumption, pollution, water exports, climate change and diversion of water runoff sources.
One Biosphere believes that the protection of water ecosystems is critical to maintain water resources for human survival and to preserve the biodiversity in our biosphere.
One Biosphere works with groups and communities to protect important watersheds throughout North America.
State laws throughout states in the U.S. must ensure that sufficient water remains in rivers and streams in order to maintain healthy water ecosystems for fish and other aquatic life as well as for human needs and outdoor recreation.
Enforcing the federal Clean Water Act and the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, which are important components of environmental law-making, is essential to protect our biosphere’s aquatic biomes.
The Clean Water Act (CWA) enforcement policies include an Action Plan which describes how the EPA will manage water pollution challenges caused by numerous, diffused sources, including:
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animal feed operations;
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sewer overflows;
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contaminated water from industrial facilities;
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construction sites;
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runoff from urban streets.
Important objectives of the Action Plan include:
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enforcement against the most deleterious, priority pollution problems;
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improvement of accountability and transparency by means of public access to information and data regarding water quality in local and regional communities;
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improvement of enforcement operations at both state and federal levels.
The Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MFCMA), commonly known as the Magnuson–Stevens Act, is the primary law administering marine fisheries management in federal waters.
The MFCMA was passed in order to promote the U.S. fishing industry's self-sustaining exploitation of coastal fisheries by unifying control over territorial waters and establishing 8 regional councils to manage fisheries. The act has been amended multiple times due to persistent overfishing. The revision in 2007 included several objectives:
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Actions to conserve fishery resources;
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Enforcement of international fishing agreements;
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Promotion of fishing consistent with conservation standards;
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Implementation of fishery management plans which achieve self-sustaining yields;
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Establishment of regional fishery management councils to supervise fishery resources by preparing, monitoring, and adopting plans which enable stake holders to participate in the management of fisheries and incorporate social and economic requisites of states;
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Development of underutilized fisheries;
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Protection of critical fishery habitats.
CONTACT US:
Our Email: one@onebiosphere.com