'Recreational Fishing Is A Way Of Life For Us': Darren Soto Urges Protections For Clean Water In Florida

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During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL) asked Principal Deputy Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Justin Shirley about environmental protections in Florida.

Transcript

00:00The chair now recognizes Mr. Soto for five minutes of questioning.

00:04Thank you, Madam Chair. Deputy Director Shirley, thanks for being here. I have the honor of

00:09representing Central Florida. We're home to the Northern Everglades region, including the

00:15Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. There's a study by law that'll be due by the end of this year

00:21about making the Kissimmee River a wild and scenic river. I realize you just got on the job,

00:26so I'm asking if you could provide our office with all that U.S. Fish and Wildlife is doing to help

00:32the Department of Interior finish that study on time this year. The snail kite is one of our

00:39endangered species that's in that region, so you would probably be dealing with issues related to

00:44that. So will you commit to getting us all the information that you all are working on to keep

00:49this study going on time? Yes, absolutely. Thanks. You know, this is about clean water for our region.

00:56Which we're now the 20th largest metro area in the nation for recreation. You know, fishing is very

01:01popular in Central Florida and we'll get to a little more of that in a second. As well as Everglades

01:05restoration. The protection of this river is critical as we see both the last administration and this

01:14current administration putting in hundreds of millions of dollars to help with the Southern

01:17Everglades. So this is absolutely a critical part of it. We saw also recently a federal judge on April

01:2511th put out an order about the protection of manatees and the Indian River Lagoon specifically

01:33to prevent new septic tanks. As you may know there was a unusual mortality event that happened a few

01:40years ago and we worked in a bipartisan fashion with our state partners to have feedings happening

01:47and the population has been a little more stabilized. But now we're in a July 17th moratorium. Just

01:55happened this last week banning any new septic tanks because of the nitrogen issue that's stifling the

02:02restoration that both federal and state officials are working on. And so the the court order calls for

02:09a conservation plan that the state has to present and an incidental take permit that U.S. Fish and Wildlife

02:16Services is supposed to work on related to that order. I know again you said you're new on the job but

02:21do you have any knowledge as to the status of that conservation plan or the incidental taking permit

02:28and the court order that's in place right now? Yeah, thank you. I don't I don't have any in-house

02:33knowledge there. I'm happy to follow up and get make sure that we provide whatever information we have and

02:39So you'll provide us with any information you've gotten about a submission of a conservation plan by Florida and then

02:45whatever response that U.S. Fish and Wildlife is working on? Sure. Thank you. You know, we're all committed to

02:53protecting the Florida manatee. We've seen it be a continue to be a bipartisan

02:58issue. And so you'll commit here today that U.S. Fish and Wildlife plans to follow the court order

03:04as presented even though you may appeal on on issues like that. Yeah, I'm again I'm not familiar with the

03:11specific circumstance, but we'll follow the law and make sure we get done what we're supposed to do.

03:17And I can't stress that

03:20while the manatee is a big part of this, this is about

03:25way more than just the manatee for our area.

03:28Recreational fishing is a way of life for us as is commercial fishing. Tourism is our

03:33top industry. People come to places like central Florida and over to the coast of central Florida

03:41to enjoy these amazing fishing grounds. And we have a lot of impairment in the waters that

03:50is something that I know we've worked on both with state officials and federal officials on.

03:55And so even as you may hear about some of these species like manatees and snail kites, just always

04:01remember this Endangered Species Act and the Mammal Protection Act and some of these others,

04:09they help bring the resources to our community to do a whole lot of other things like protecting clean

04:13water, like protecting recreational fishing, like making sure that tourism, our top industry,

04:21is protected. So I know you all have Zion Park in Utah back when you were in the state.

04:26So you get that tourism and conservation can be an important part of of commercial activities in

04:33the state, correct? Yes, absolutely. And I did my post legislative session vacation a couple years ago

04:41to the Everglades in your state to decompress and look at birds and enjoy what Florida has to offer.

04:47I do understand that. Thank you. Well, then you know firsthand, Mr. Director,

04:52and I look forward to getting those submissions and and thanks for being responsive to my questions.

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