Deadliest Catch Star Keith Colburn to Testify Before Congress, Urges Protection For "America's Fish Basket".On 20(th) Anniversary of Exxon Valdez This article is about the tank vessel Exxon Valdez. For the spill, see Exxon Valdez oil spill. Exxon Valdez was the original name (later Sea River Mediterranean and eventually Mediterranean Spill, Congress to Receive Jars of Rocks from Alaska Coast That Remain Covered in Oil WASHINGTON -- Environmental groups (Alaska Wilderness League, Oceana and World Wildlife Fund) issued the following: Captain Keith Colburn, star of the Discovery Channel hit series Deadliest Catch, will testify before a joint congressional oversight Congressional Oversight refers to oversight by the United States Congress of the Executive Branch, including the numerous U.S. federal agencies. Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report for Congress[1] Congressional Oversight hearing on Tuesday - the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill - and urge Congress to protect Alaska's most productive fisheries from oil exploration. Each member of the two subcommittees holding the joint hearing will be presented with a jar of rocks collected last month from the shores of Prince William Sound Prince William Sound, large, irregular, islanded inlet of the Gulf of Alaska, S Alaska, E of the Kenai peninsula. It has many bays and good harbors; the large Columbia Glacier flows into Columbia Bay, in the N central portion. , the site of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. Two decades after the accident, the rocks remain coated in oil. Dr. Jeffrey Short of Oceana, an internationally recognized expert on oil impacts to the ocean, will testify about lessons learned from the Exxon Valdez and the need for a science-based precautionary approach to protect fragile Arctic ecosystems from industrialization industrialization Process of converting to a socioeconomic order in which industry is dominant. The changes that took place in Britain during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and 19th century led the way for the early industrializing nations of western Europe and . Also on Tuesday, more than 60 members of Congress will be sending a letter to President Obama highlighting the high likelihood of a large spill in the Arctic and the lack of technology to clean up such a spill. In his testimony, Colburn, a crab fisherman in Alaska's Bristol Bay Bristol Bay An arm of the Bering Sea in southwest Alaska between the mainland and the Alaska Peninsula. It is a rich salmon-fishing area. , will tell the subcommittees that opening Bristol Bay to oil drilling could be devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. to the fishing industry and will urge Congress to protect the region from proposed oil and gas lease sales that were offered under the Bush administration. Known as "America's fish basket," Bristol Bay and the larger Bering Sea Bering Sea, c.878,000 sq mi (2,274,020 sq km), northward extension of the Pacific Ocean between Siberia and Alaska. It is screened from the Pacific proper by the Aleutian Islands. The Bering Strait connects it with the Arctic Ocean. are home to nearly half the seafood caught in the U.S. - a $2.2 billion annual fishery. By comparison, oil and gas drilling is expected to bring in just $7.7 billion total over the entire 25-40 years experts believe it will take to fully extract the resources. [TABLE OMITTED] B roll and still photos available. The hearing will be webcast live on the Committee's website at http://resourcescommittee.house.gov. |
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