It's hard not to notice clouds of smog, clear-cut forests or sludge-filled rivers. When our environmental problems hide out of plain sight, however, they tend to command less attention.

Largely overlooked by the public and ignored by policymakers, our nation has pushed its oceans to the brink of collapse, and if they fall, then Hawai'i's economy sinks with them. Now, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye is fighting to stem the tide and restore our marine resources.

I've spent much of the last decade face-to-face with fish, turtles and other ocean wildlife, logging over 3,000 dives everywhere from the Bahamas to Indonesia.

Five years ago, I started recording these expeditions on film so others could share in an experience that too few ever get to see firsthand.

Some of my best days have been off the coast of Hawai'i, where regional fishery managers preserved most of our wild stocks. In local waters, you can dive with a multitude of species — including sharks, manta rays, octopus, moray eels and nudibranches — not to mention snorkeling with pods of dolphins and pilot whales.

The ocean also provides the backbone of Hawai'i's $11 billion tourism industry, which supports over 183,000 jobs.

But the marine environment is fragile, more so than many people realize. I saw this vulnerability for myself last year, on a diving trip off the Baja Peninsula.

The Revillagigedos Islands, 250 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas, are famous for their resident manta population. They were once also renowned for their hundred-pound yellowfin tuna and diverse array of sharks. When I visited, however, much of the fish population seemed to have dwindled, and some previously common shark species were barely visible.

The tuna have been depleted by illegal fishing boats, which take stocks from the ocean faster than they can reproduce. The sharks, on the other hand, are often caught as by-catch —trapped and killed in nets designed to capture other fish.

And it's not an isolated problem, or a strictly international one. In domestic waters, one in four federally managed fisheries has already been dangerously depleted, and one in five is currently subject to unsustainable fishing practices.

Sen. Inouye, along with Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, introduced legislation to address this problem. Their bill — which reauthorizes the Magnuson-Stevens Act, our nation's fishery management law — would require a clear catch limit for each of our nation's stocks. The bill just passed unanimously in the Senate.

If those limits were surpassed, then the excess amount would be deducted from subsequent catch levels. This ensures that depleted fisheries have time to rebuild, adding much-needed enforcement and accountability to current law.

But before Inouye realizes his goal, he may have to overcome opposition in the House of Representatives, where Reps. Richard Pombo and Barney Frank are pushing a major rollback of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Their legislation, which is expected to face a House vote next month, would make it harder to rebuild depleted fisheries. And, unlike Inoyue's bill, it contains no enforcement mechanisms to protect already-overfished stocks.

This approach is designed to accommodate Frank's district, which is home to some of the worst-managed stocks in the nation. Across New England, in fact, the overfishing rate is twice the national average. And that's the direction that Hawai'i's fisheries could be headed under the House bill.

This is a poor model for the region, and a worse one for the nation. Instead of working to fix our worst ocean mistakes, Congress is on the verge of replicating them on a much larger scale.

Our life in Hawai'i revolves around the ocean, and declining fisheries represent a major threat that needs immediate attention. By urging lawmakers to follow Sen. Inouye's lead, we can help secure a better future for our state and one of the nation's most treasured resources.

On the other hand, if out of sight continues to mean out of mind, then Hawai'i could end up out of luck.

Bryce Groark is an avid diver certified by the Professional Association of Dive Instructors and Technical Diving International, and he owns Living Ocean Productions, a professional underwater imaging business based in Kona. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.