New license plates would support sea life

The full House of Delegates will soon vote on a bill to authorize the issuance of “Protect Sea Life” license plates after it unanimously passed in the Transportation Committee.

The bill, HB1637, gained support from the committee during last week’s session. The Department of Motor Vehicles has already approved the pre-paid applications and the design of the plate, said Del. Barry D. Knight, R-Virginia Beach, who introduced this bill.

“To make it long story short, it’s going to [pass] because we got all of the prepaids in, and it’s a really really good cause,” he said.

Mark Swingle, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center’s director of research and conservation, shared Knight’s optimism about this legislation and cause.

“We believe that the pre-sales demonstrate the public’s willingness to support ocean conservation efforts, and hope that once this plate becomes available statewide, people from throughout the Commonwealth will continue to support it,” he said.

The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center not only met the prerequisite needed for the bill to be reviewed in Virginia’s 2019 General Assembly session, but surpassed it—receiving 475 pre-orders for the “Protect Sea Life” license plate by the Jan. 7 deadline, Knight said.

“[Getting the pre-orders] was a challenge,” Swingle said. “But we are fortunate that a lot of people believe in our cause and championed it from early on.”

Once the bill passes the House, it will be sent to a committee and then to the Senate commission and full Senate before the governor will sign it and it becomes a law, Knight said.

“I guarantee there will be no opposition whatsoever, and people’d be proud to have that plate,” he said about the likelihood of the bill passing in the House and Senate.

Most passed legislation in the assembly becomes official law on July 1, 2019, and the license plates would be available soon after that.

Once this bill is passed, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center will be in a much better position to support its ocean conservation programming, including its award-winning Stranding Response Program, Swingle stated.

Since the start of this program more 20 years ago, members have responded to thousands of sick, injured, dead and entrapped marine mammals and sea turtles that were unable to return to the ocean, Swingle explained.

“We also operate the Pier Partner Program, which works with local piers to provide signage and training in case local anglers hook a sea turtle by mistake,” he said. “Once hooked, the Pier Partners call our Stranding Response Program and team members are dispatched to retrieve and begin rehabilitation for the turtle.”

Knight emphasized the vast reach of the Stranding Response Program.

“Their stranding program goes to the entire coast of Virginia, sometimes out of Virginia, to take whales, sea turtles, etc. that are having problems,” he said.