Puget Sound Shoreline, Rae A. McNally
Boaters crossing the border between the U.S. and British Columbia must check in at Customs. Fish, birds, mammals and pollutants carried by tides and winds, however, don’t recognize political boundaries drawn in the water.

Washington state’s many natural resource agencies such as the Puget Sound Partnership and the departments of Ecology, Health, Agriculture and Natural Resources realize how important cross-border relationships are in protecting and restoring the health of Puget Sound and its neighbor water body to the north, the Georgia Basin .

The British Columbia/Washington Environmental Initiative
The signing of the Environmental Cooperation Agreement by Premier Harcourt and Governor Gardner in May 1992 signaled the beginning of the British Columbia/Washington Environmental Initiative. This agreement commits the state and the province to work together on transboundary environmental problems.

 The initiative established an Environmental Cooperation Council (ECC) composed of the Director of the Department of Ecology and the Deputy Minister of the British Columbia Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection, as well as formal observers from the regional offices of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environment Canada, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada .                                

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Puget Sound/Georgia Basin International Task Force
The ECC created five task forces to coordinate cross-border efforts in five priority areas--the Puget Sound/Georgia Basin International Task Force is one such task force.

The task force includes representatives of EPA, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Department of Environment Canada, Washington Department of Ecology, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Puget Sound Partnership, BC Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection, the Northwest Straits Commission, the Coast Salish Sea Council, and the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

In November 2000 the task force released:

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Marine Science Panel
The ECC created an independent Marine Science Panel in 1993 comprising scientists from both British Columbia and Washington to assess the state of the marine environment in the shared waters and to provide recommendations for action. A symposium of scientists from both sides of the border was convened in Vancouver, B.C. in January 1994 to present a status report on the marine environment and biota in Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

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