Ocean health is critical to all life on this planet. Phytoplankton, the microscopic plants found in the sunlit area of almost all oceans, generate about half of the Earth’s oxygen, and the complex interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere sustains our climate. Yet the oceans are in decline, largely because of human activities that are driving the collapse of fisheries, the loss of biodiversity, and the acidification of seawater.
Seagrasses are one of the most valuable coastal and marine ecosystems on the planet, providing a range of critical environmental, economic and social benefits. They provide food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of people, and they support rich biodiversity, with their sediments constituting one of the planet’s most efficient stores of carbon. However coastal development and population growth, rising pollution and climate change, are threatening the survival of this vital ecosystem.
The term Blue Economy has become increasingly used over the past decade, despite its lack of definition, with a multitude of agents and agencies finding the name acceptable to frame their ‘economy’ strategies, regardless of the hue. There are also many sceptics, given the long succession of let-downs since the 1980s such as when a similarly attractive term, sustainable development, was coined and supposed to meet economic, social and environmental objectives but in practice mainly focused on the economy at the expense of the environment.
The adoption of effective fisheries conservation and management measures (‘CMM’) represents a critical stage in the process of sustainably managing global fishing stocks. It represents the point at which scientific data is integrated with law and policy considerations to generate concrete rules designed to constrain the behaviour of fishers and other stakeholders in order to promote desired conservation goals within a fishery. This paper will examine the fisheries CMM process within the broader framework of international law and policy for marine resource governance.
With the establishment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, the Human Development Forum launched a series of publications entitled A Better World, each volume dedicated to one of the 17 SDGs. This volume, published in June 2020, covers Goal 14 — Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. It is our belief that enhancing the contribution of marine biodiversity is hugely beneficial to the world in general, and to the future of small island developing states and least developed countries in particular.
On the Global Reef Expedition—one of the largest coral reef studies in history—the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation conducted research in the Solomon Islands to map and characterize shallow marine habitats and assess the status of coral reef benthic and fish communities. Working in partnership with local officials and scientists from around the world, the Foundation surveyed reefs in the Western, Isabel, and Temotu Provinces from October 26 through November 24, 2014.
Ancient Hawaiians developed sophisticated natural resource management systems that included various forms of spatial management. The state of Hawaiʻi established its first legislated marine protected area (MPA) in 1953, and today there exists a patchwork of spatial marine management strategies along a range of sizes, with varying levels of governance, enforcement, and effectiveness. Approximately 12% of waters within the 50 m depth contour and 5% of waters within state jurisdiction (≤3 nmi) have some form of marine management.
The 2020 edition of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture continues to demonstrate the significant and growing role of fisheries and aquaculture in providing food, nutrition and employment. It also shows the major challenges ahead despite the progress made on a number of fronts. For example, there is growing evidence that when fisheries are properly managed, stocks are consistently above target levels or rebuilding, giving credibility to the fishery managers and governments around the world that are willing to take strong action.
The United Nations are currently negotiating a new international legally-binding instrument to govern the global ocean commons, a vast area beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) owned by everyone but not cared for by any single entity. Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have been underrepresented in the debate about governance of ABNJ despite their internationally recognized rights and their role as custodians of many globally-significant migratory species that travel between coasts and high seas.
In 2016 a partnership was developed between the Tongan Ministry of Fisheries and James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. Its aim was to implement the first stage of a Tongan national coral reef monitoring project, and to provide an overview of the current status of Tonga’s Special Management Area (SMA) program. Since 2002 the Ministry of Fisheries has been heavily focused on expanding the SMA program, and communities throughout Tonga have been enthusiastic about introducing local marine management. As a result of this momentum, the Ministry has focused primarily on implementation.