SEATTLE (AP) - Leading scientists are calling on the government to change its approach to saving the oceans, saying a jumble of local, state and federal agencies is botching solutions to problems ranging from overfishing to climate change.

"One of the big problems is that the way we do ocean management now is disconnected," said Andrew Rosenberg, dean of the University of New Hampshire's College of Life Sciences and Agriculture and a member of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, a panel Congress commissioned four years ago that's expected to release a report next month.

"We look at each piece individually," said Rosenberg. "We look at fisheries separately from coastal development separately from pollution and so on.

"We know that everything's connected to everything else, and if we manage just some of the pieces, then we shouldn't really expect that we will be very successful in arresting the decline of the oceans," he said.

Humans are responsible for most of the ocean's degradation, the panelists said. Some of the biggest problems are shoreline development, mining, oil extraction, and industrial and cruise ship pollution.

"In order to begin this healing process, we have to understand the interrelationship between land and sea. We don't do that now," said Leon Panetta, who was President Clinton's chief of staff, and now serves as chairman of the Pew Oceans Commission.

Asked how the commission would make the public realize the oceans have pressing problems that need immediate attention, Rosenberg said: "People don't want to go to the beach and see signs that say, 'Don't eat the fish. Don't step in the water. And ... your kids should not be breathing this air."

When people get passionate about the environment, Ruckelshaus said presidents tend to listen.

"I worked for two Republican presidents as the Environmental Protection Agency administrator: President Nixon and President Reagan," Ruckelshaus said. "Neither one of them were exactly charter members of the Sierra Club, but they both responded because the public demanded it."

"If we don't take do anything about the problem we have now with the oceans, it's just going to get worse," he added. "It's like Social Security. It's not going to get better if you don't pay any attention to it."

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On the Net:

American Association for the Advancement of Science: http://www.aaas.org/

U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy: http://oceancommission.gov/

Pew Oceans Commission: http://www.pewoceans.org/