Bush Pushes for Protection of Fish, Habitat of Migratory Birds

After Touting Conservation, President Goes Fishing Near St. Michaels, Md.

ST. MICHAELS, Md. -- President Bush promised yesterday, during a nature-themed series of appearances in Maryland, to better protect two fish species -- and then went fishing.

Starting in Laurel yesterday morning, Bush announced new measures to preserve habitats used by migrating birds. Later, he visited this picturesque Eastern Shore town, near Vice President Cheney's vacation home, to talk about new conservation measures for two fish species, red drum and striped bass.

After that Bush, perhaps reasoning that the fish had been lulled into a false sense of security, went out with a hook and a line.

"The vice president tells me there's a lot of fine fishing here, and I'm looking forward to going out and trying to catch some," Bush told his audience. He added a quip at the expense of Cheney, who was absent: "The Secret Service won't let me go hunting with him."

In Laurel, Bush visited the federal Patuxent Research Refuge, posing for photos with a sleepy-looking screech owl perched on his hand. Bush then spoke about new measures to stop the loss of "stopover habitats."

These habitats are places where migratory birds rest during their journeys north or south, and Bush said they are rapidly being lost to development. To save such places, Bush said the federal government would award "recovery credits" to landowners who improved bird habitat on their property. These credits could then be sold to others whose property was losing bird habitat, officials said.

Environmentalists who focus on bird populations said they were optimistic about the idea but cautious about how it would work. Bob Perciasepe of the National Audubon Society said he wanted to be certain that good bird habitats are not lost in exchange for marginal ones.

"If the exchange weren't equal or better," Perciasepe said, "it might not have a big impact."

After the Laurel appearance, Bush flew by helicopter to St. Michaels, a 200-year-old town of inns and coffee shops on a peninsula jutting into the Chesapeake Bay. At the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, with a transplanted lighthouse as a backdrop, Bush talked about a fish that Washington-area anglers and diners know well.

"The striped bass . . . it's a good fish to catch. It's a lot of fun. It's also a good fish to eat," Bush said. "We've got to make sure we've got enough to catch as well as enough to eat."

To do that, Bush said he would seek to end commercial fishing for striped bass -- meaning fish caught for resale, not sport -- in federally controlled ocean waters. These waters typically stretch from three to 200 miles offshore. Bush said he would try to enact a similar ban on commercial fishing for red drum.

Neither rule would make much of an immediate difference: Commercial fishing for these species has already been prohibited in federal waters.

But Bush also said he would like to see state governments do more to limit commercial fishing for these species in waters closer to shore.

If Maryland and Virginia followed that advice, it could have a serious impact: More than a thousand watermen catch striped bass -- also called rockfish -- in their sections of the Chesapeake and the Atlantic Ocean.

"That would put a lot of people out of business," Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association, said yesterday.

For now, no such move seems imminent. A Virginia state spokesman said officials would need to study the president's idea before commenting. In Maryland, a spokeswoman said her state has no plans to change its striped bass policies.

After his speech, Bush was joined by a crew from an ESPN outdoors show for a few minutes of angling. But the First Fisherman didn't catch anything, a White House spokesman said.

After that, the president joined first lady Laura Bush for lunch at Cheney's home. As for the fish, their good luck continued: The group ate Maryland crab cakes.