Whereas estuary regions cover only 13 percent of the land area in the continental United States but contain nearly 43 percent of the population, 40 percent of the jobs, and nearly 50 percent of the economic output of the United States; Whereas the Nation’s oceans, estuaries, and Great Lakes continue to fuel economic growth across the Nation with employment from the estuarine and ocean economy growing at 2.7 percent in 2016, compared to the national average employment growth of 1.7 percent; Whereas estuary, ocean, and Great Lakes economy sectors created 85,000 new jobs between 2015 to 2016, employed 3,300,000 people, and contributed $124,000,000,000 in gross domestic product; Whereas employment in the ocean economy increased by 14.5 percent from prerecession levels (2007), three times the rate of recovery of the United States economy as a whole; Whereas the commercial and recreational fishing industries support over 1,740,000 jobs in the United States; Whereas, in 2017— (1) commercial and recreational saltwater fishing in the United States generated more than $244,000,000,000 in sales and contributed $110,700,000,000 to the gross domestic product of the United States; (2) angler trip expenditures totaled nearly $10,500,000,000; and (3) saltwater recreational fishing supported 487,000 jobs, generated $73,800,000,000 in sales impacts across the economy, and contributed $41,500,000,000 to the gross domestic product of the United States; Whereas estuaries provide vital habitats for— (1) countless species of fish and wildlife, including more than 68 percent of the commercial fish catch in the United States by value and 80 percent of the recreational fish catch in the United States by weight; and (2) many species that are listed as threatened or endangered species