A bipartisan resolution to protect and restore the nation’s estuaries, which are threatened by climate change, rising sea levels and pollution has passed the Senate.
The resolution calls for the protection and restoration of the National Estuary Program, which was established in 1987 to protect and restore estuarine habitats threatened by pollution, overdevelopment, and other harms.
“Estuaries like the Ocean State’s beautiful Narragansett Bay are at the center of daily life and the economy across the country,” said U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who co-sponsored the resolution with 29 other senators. “As climate change intensifies, I am glad to join my Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle to recognize and recommit to protecting our estuarine environments from increasing threats.”
“We are drawn to estuaries for many reasons. Not only are they beautiful, they fuel our economy, offer many opportunities to recreate, sustain our fisheries, and help protect us from the impacts of climate change,” said Caitlin Chaffee, manager of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. “We proudly celebrate Estuaries Week as a time to acknowledge the importance of estuaries and rededicate ourselves to safeguarding them and the benefits they provide to natural and human communities.”
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.
