California Congressman Sam Farr began his career in public service in 1964 with a two-year commitment in the Peace Corps in Colombia. Before becoming a Congressman in the House of Representatives in 1993, Farr served for nearly 13 years in the California State Assembly. The coasts of his California home moved him to take on marine issues. Here he shares his vision for a healthy future for our ocean.

I don’t have to travel far to find the inspiration for my love of our ocean: I think my home on California’s central coast is the most beautiful place in the world, and I consider it my responsibility to care for our waters as best I can.

If you’re an ocean fan and haven’t visited the central coast, you’re missing out. We host millions of tourists each year and grow most of the greens you’ll eat for dinner tonight, but our role as ocean conservator is the most important feather in our cap.

Most know the region because of the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, but Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties are also home to one of the most impressive concentrations of ocean research facilities anywhere. You’ll find Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey, the oldest marine lab on the West Coast whose roots stretch back to 1892. Drive north and you’ll pass Moss Landing, home to the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, a national center for marine education. Complete the trip around the bay to Santa Cruz and you’ll come across the University of California’s Long Marine Lab, with more than 100 faculty, researchers and graduate students. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

But all these tools are useless if our knowledge doesn’t make it into the hands of decision makers. We have 20 often-overlapping federal agencies and 140 laws dictating ocean policy, but we lack the local input necessary for their implementation.

There is a solution on the horizon. I have been working for years on comprehensive ocean governance reform to provide the national guidance and state and local involvement we so desperately need. Critical local knowledge should be provided by regional bodies—made up of representatives from a broad spectrum of scientists and local stakeholders—and incorporated into the decision-making process. And these regional partnerships must be supported by a national framework, including a cabinet-level ocean adviser.

Through the efforts of scientists, we have the knowledge we need to preserve our ocean as a vital ecosystem while maintaining its crucial role as a center of commerce and recreation. We now need the ability to bring that knowledge to those who can use it to help ensure the health of our ocean for many generations to come.

Maryland Congressman Wayne Gilchrest will conclude 17 years of public service this year. During this time, he has worked toward sustainable fishing practices, coral conservation and other marine issues, leaving behind an extensive ocean legacy. The following is a reflection on what inspired his commitment to our ocean and his hopes for our future.

Our ocean, the source of life on planet Earth, supports a wide diversity of living communities. Their chemical, physical, structural and biological components are incredibly complex, and the life that depends upon the balance of these components is fragile. Yet we are still scrambling to understand our ocean and to identify as many new marine species and communities as possible before they are lost—even as we increase our extraction of living and nonliving marine resources. As former Chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, I have been and remain concerned that our enthusiasm to reap the many benefits our ocean provides is greater than our understanding of how our activities may disrupt this balance.

The ocean profoundly influences our world and all of its environs. Changes in ocean temperatures contributed to the drought in the 1930s that led to the “Dust Bowl,” resulting in the migration of thousands of farmers to the West and in the establishment of what is now known as the Farm Bill, a comprehensive national agricultural law that touches the diet and access to food for all Americans. We know that climate change and the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is affecting oceans and that these ocean impacts in turn will affect global weather patterns. Sea level rise will change our coastlines, but we do not yet know how changing currents will affect the economic and social structure of the interior United States. We also know relatively little about the dynamic relationships among marine living creatures or how our activities will directly or indirectly affect the sustainability of their populations.

In my canoe in a tidal basin near the Chesapeake Bay, I have witnessed this delicate balance in my own local ecosystem, from season to season and through changes caused by human activity. While these waters nurture us, they also have an intrinsic, spiritual connection to the human soul. There is a simple joy in witnessing the mystery of nature on the water and its bounty. As we try to understand our oceans more completely, I hope we temper our use of their resources with wisdom, taking only what we know can be sustained. I also hope this growing knowledge will combine with our spiritual connection to our waters so that we temper our impacts on them with a joyful yearning to let them be.