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![handle is hein.usccsset/usconset50474 and id is 1 raw text is: AUTHENTICATEO
U.S. GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
Gp
Calendar No. 501
111TH CONGRESS REPORT
2d Session SENATE 111-241
GULF OF MEXICO RESTORATION AND PROTECTION ACT
AUGUST 2, 2010.-Ordered to be printed
Mrs. BOXER, from the Committee on Environment and Public
Works, submitted the following
REPORT
[To accompany S. 1311]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Environment and Public Works, to which was
referred a bill (S. 1311) to amend the Federal Water Pollution Con-
trol Act to strengthen cooperative efforts to monitor, restore, and
protect the resource productivity, water quality, and marine eco-
systems of the Gulf of Mexico, having considered the same, reports
favorably thereon with an amendment and recommends that the
bill, as amended, do pass.
GENERAL STATEMENT AND BACKGROUND
The Gulf of Mexico ecosystem provides a wide array of valuable
resources. Encompassing over five million acres (about half of the
U.S. total), the Gulfs coastal wetlands serve as an essential habitat
for a broad array of economically important fish and wildlife spe-
cies, including migrating waterfowl and sport and commercial fish-
eries. According to the National Ocean Economics Program, the
Gulf Coast tourism, recreation, and fishing ocean economies gen-
erate $18.9 billion in economic activity and support more than
400,000 jobs.
There are numerous threats to the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, in-
cluding the world's second largest zone of hypoxia or dead zone
which affects the region's seafood production. The Gulf of Mexico
Alliance reported in 2008 that the major commercial fishing ports
of the Gulf of Mexico region bring in over 1.2 billion pounds of
fresh seafood every year. The resource productivity and water qual-
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