Case Studies in Oceanography and Marine Affairs. Prepared by an Open University Course Team

248 Pages·1991·38.36 MB·English

by  Joan Brown and Gerry Bearman (Auth.)

THE OCEANOGRAPHY COURSE TEAM
Authors
Joan Brown
Angela Colling
Dave Park
John Phillips
Dave Rothery
John Wright
Editor
Gerry Bearman
Design and Illustration
Sue Dobson
Ray Munns
Ros Porter
Jane Sheppard
This Volume forms part of an Open University course. For general
availability of all the Volumes in the Oceanography Series, please
contact your regular supplier, or in case of difficulty the appropriate
Pergamon office.
Further information on Open University courses may be obtained from:
The Admissions Office, The Open University, P.O. Box 48, Walton Hall,
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA.
Cover illustration : Satellite photograph showing distribution of
phytoplankton pigments in the North Atlantic off the US coast in the
region of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current. (NASA and
O. Brown and R. Evans, University of Miami.)
CASE STUDIES IN OCEANOGRAPHY
AND MARINE AFFAIRS
PREPARED BY AN OPEN UNIVERSITY COURSE TEAM
PERGAMON PRESS
OXFORD · NEW YORK · SEOUL · TOKYO
in association with
TheOren THE 0PEN UNIVERSITY
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Copyright © 1991 The Open University.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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First edition 1991
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Case studies in oceanography and marine affairs/prepared by an Open
University Course Team.—1st ed.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Oceanography. 2. Marine resources. 3. Maritime law. I. Open
University. Oceanography Course Team.
GC11.2.C37 1991
551.46-<lc20 91-16914
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Case studies in oceanography and marine studies.
(Open University Oceanography)
I. Open University II. Series
551.46
ISBN 008 036376 8 (Hardcover)
ISBN 008 036375 X (Flexicover)
Jointly published by the Open University, Walton Hall, Milton
Keynes, MK7 6AA and Pergamon Press pic, Headington Hill Hall,
Oxford OX3 OBW.
Designed by the Graphic Design Group of The Open University.
Printed in Great Britain by BPCC Wheatons Ltd, Exeter
ABOUT THIS VOLUME
This is one of a Series of Volumes on Oceanography. It is designed so
that it can be read on its own, like any other textbook, or studied as
part of S330 Oceanography, a third level course for Open University
students. The science of oceanography as a whole is multidisciplinary.
This Volume differs from others in the Series in that it does not draw
specifically upon any one or other of the 'traditional' scientific
disciplines. The first part outlines the international legal framework
within which marine affairs are (or should be) conducted. The second
part consists of two case studies illustrating the legal and/or
multidisciplinary scientific aspects of selected océanographie
environments.
Chapter 1 summarizes the many ways in which the seas and oceans
constitute a global resource that must be properly managed if conflicts
of interest and use are to be reconciled, and if lasting damage to marine
ecosystems is to be avoided. Chapter 2 describes the long and tangled
history of attempts to establish a legal system (a Law of the Sea),
whereby marine affairs may be managed for the -benefit of all. It takes
us up to the late 1970s. Chapter 3 outlines the evolution of the present
international legal regime, through the 1980s and into the early 1990s.
Chapter 4 is concerned with the Arctic Ocean, much of which is
permanently covered with ice. The geographical setting of the Arctic
Ocean, and its importance to the Inuit, the indigenous people, mean that
perceptions of 'who owns what' have developed in an unusual way.
Until relatively recently, there seemed to be no pressing need for the
legal situation regarding the waters and sea-bed of the Arctic to be
clarified; however, as its sub-sea resources have become increasingly
valuable and techniques of exploration and exploitation have improved,
all this has changed. Taking hydrocarbons as our main example, we
look at the practical difficulties of extraction and transportation and at
the associated legal issues, particularly regarding rights of passage.'
Finally, we consider how global warming could transform the
navigability of Arctic waters and hence perhaps also their legal status.
The Galapagos Islands, discussed in Chapter 5, are famous for their
peculiar endemic flora and fauna, both terrestrial and marine. These are
largely the result of the islands' océanographie setting, far from land and
in the seasonally changing current system of the eastern equatorial
Pacific. The Galapagos Islands also experience dramatic interannual
changes: their equatorial position means that they are hit hard by the
climatic perturbation known as El Nino. We look briefly at how the
marine flora and fauna of the islands were affected by the particularly
severe El Nino of 1982-83, and see how technically uplifted massive
corals provide an insight into past climatic conditions. Since 1986-87,
the marine life of the Galapagos has been to some extent protected
through being in a marine nature reserve. We look at how this reserve
came to be set up, and its role as a marine resources reserve rather than
simply as a conservation area.
You will find questions designed to help you to develop arguments
and/or to test your own understanding as you read, with answers
provided at the back of this Volume. Important technical terms are
5
printed in bold type where they are first introduced and defined.
Note, however, that several of these terms are defined in previous
Volumes in the Series and may not necessarily be redefined here.
While reading this Volume, and Chapters 1 to 3 in particular, you
should bear the following points in mind:
1 In international negotiations, treaties, agreements, etc., relating to
the Law of the Sea, the unit of lateral distance employed is the nautical
mile and the unit employed for depth is usually the metre. This hybrid
system has been adopted in this Volume because to do otherwise
would (a) create problems in quoting from the original documents and
(b) destroy the conventional whole-number system of maritime limits
(e.g. the 12 (nautical)-mile limit would become the 22.224-km limit, or,
at best, the 22.2-km limit). The term 'nautical mile' is generally
abbreviated to 'mile'; in other words, 'mile' should always be understood
to refer to the nautical mile and not to the shorter statute mile used on
land. Where the abbreviation 'm' is used, it refers to metres and not to
miles. The (nautical) mile used here is the International Nautical Mile,
the primary numerical definition of which is 1.852 km. The UK nautical
mile {not used here) is slightly longer, being defined numerically as
6 080 feet, which converts to 1.853 km. Note also that 1° latitude = 60
International Nautical Miles.
2 Unless otherwise stated in a specific context, the information in
Chapters 2 and 3 on Law of the Sea refers to the legal position during
peacetime. In wartime, the rules of international law, however widely
agreed and accepted beforehand, are liable to be ignored.
CHAPTER 1 I MARINE RESOURCES AND ACTIVITIES
'Running through the web of English history one perceives the
connecting thread of maritime interest and occupation interwoven
with the national life, and at all times affecting the national
policy The sea must be 'kept.' That has been the maxim and
watchword of national policy throughout the ages....'
T.W. Fulton (1911) The Sovereignty of the Sea, Blackwood & Sons.
This introductory Chapter seeks to provide a general survey of those
properties of the sea that make it a resource—something of material
value to humanity. The term 'resource' is applied in the broadest sense,
to include any use to which the sea is put—activities such as navigation,
waste disposal and research as well as the more conventional resources
like fisheries and sea-bed minerals.
The management of marine resources and activities has become
increasingly complex as new technologies have developed and new nations
have appeared—especially in the decades following World War II.
Protection of the marine environment is now a matter of global concern.
1.1 THE SEA ITSELF
The largest and most 'intangible' resource is the sea itself. What we may
call marine space and its influence upon cultural and national identities
and attitudes have provided much material for political geographers. Is it
better to be an island, a coastal state or a land-locked state? The
question can be endlessly debated, especially when you consider the
extremes: the concentration of land-locked states in Africa with no direct
access to marine resources on the one hand; and on the other, the island
states of the Pacific, which have large marine resource potentials but
inadequate economic bases to develop them independently.
In the space of a few decades, the relationship between the developed
countries and the less developed countries has undergone a
transformation. For one thing there are now many more of the latter, so
that in international bodies such as the United Nations they can easily
outvote the developed countries. Secondly, the growing desire of many
less developed countries to industrialize has focused attention on the
importance of both physical and biological resources and hence
strengthened the determination of such nations to bargain over the
resources available.
A nation's shoreline length, and hence the area of coastal sea over which
it can legitimately claim some jurisdiction (the territorial sea, defined in
Chapter 2), bears no relation to the area of the country, its population
or its needs, however defined. Moreover, two countries with equal-length
shorelines could well, and often do, find themselves with quite different
resource potentials. A strong feeling has developed among the less
developed nations that an attempt should be made to iron out some of
these inequalities by ensuring that the poorer countries receive some
7
financial benefit from the resources of the deep oceans. Moreover, the
less developed countries now have more power to back up this view,
partly because of their voting strength at the United Nations, partly
because some of them have resources of their own that are required by
the developed nations, and partly because of a more sympathetic attitude
generally towards the reduction of economic differentials between states.
In short, marine 'space' by itself is of little consequence to any nation
unless it can be put to some use, even if only as a protective barrier.
And the sea has many more uses than that.
1.1.1 TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS
Sea-going ships probably evolved from river craft of the earliest
civilizations (Figure 1.1). Probably the earliest known economy based on
seaborne trade was that of Minoan Crete, which became established
between about 1700 and 1400 BC. Mycenaeans, Phoenicians, Greeks and
Figure 1.1 Excavated and re-assembled model
of a funeral ship of the Pharaoh Cheops, buried
alongside the pyramid at Giza, a 2600 BC. It is a
ceremonial version of river craft commonly in use
at that time.
Romans subsequently increased the scale of marine trading (and warfare)
throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. Similar activities were in
progress during approximately the same period in the western Pacific.
Maritime trade has played a large part in establishing the political
geography of the world that we know today. In fact, the boundaries of
many of the world's greatest empires were established in lands
discovered by mariners in great feats of endurance and navigation.
Technological advance has not diminished the importance of seaborne
trade—rather the reverse, if anything, especially for bulk commodities
such as petroleum, coal, iron ore, grain, and fruit, to name but a few.
Between 1945 and the 1980s, total world-wide seaborne tonnage
increased from around 500 million tonnes to ten times that amount. Air
travel has led to a drastic reduction in maritime passenger traffic since
1945, but air transport remains uncompetitive for bulk cargo.
Military use
Warships have been a part of the oceanic scene for thousands of years,
but maritime warfare entered a new phase with the development of the
submarine, the first effective use of which was in the American Civil
War. An even more significant development took place in 1955 with the
introduction of the nuclear-powered submarine, able to stay submerged
for long periods. Such a submarine can rest on the sea-bed for many
months without refuelling or surfacing.
Mishaps to such submarines in deep waters is a cause for concern,
because speedy recovery is difficult, if not impossible. The loss of a
Soviet nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea in 1989 brought the known
number of nuclear power plants lost on the sea-bed to ten. There is
danger of radioactive contamination of the marine environment, though
this is more localized than that caused by the testing of nuclear weapons
during the 1950s and 1960s. More recently, the oceans provided a useful
area of open space over which to test ballistic missiles.
Submarine cables
Submarine electric telegraphy was first discussed as a theoretical
possibility in 1795, although its practical implementation had to await
the discovery of a material (gutta-percha) suitable for insulating
conducting cable against chemical attack and the penetration of water.
Experiments were carried out with cables laid under the Rhine in 1847,
under Kiel Harbour in 1848 and under part of the English Channel in
1849. The first commercial cable was laid on the bed of the Channel
between Dover and Calais in 1850, but it had a useful life of only a few
hours because of breakage. A second cross-Channel cable was more
successful and was opened for public use in 1851. The first Atlantic
cable was laid between Ireland and Newfoundland in 1857-58 but only
lasted for 2\ months and 732 messages. The second, laid in 1866 by
Brunei's Great Eastern (Figure 1.2), was more successful. Since then, all
the world's seas and oceans have been crossed by telegraph, and later
telephone cables. Rubbish and sunken vessels apart, cables were the first
permanent artefacts on the sea-bed and thus represented the first major
new use of the oceans for thousands of years.
Their importance for communications has declined with the development
of satellite technologies, but submarine cables will continue to have their
9
A
DESIGNED AMD CONSTRUCTED 8Y SCOTT RUSSElL, ESQ.,■-- ENGIMEER, I. K. BRUMEL, ESQ., F.R.S.
Figure 1.2 The Great Eastern, Isambard Kingdom uses, both for the transmission of electrical power (e.g. between France
Brunei's 'great iron ship', from which the Atlantic d the United Kingdom) and for communication (a fibre optic
an
telegraph cable was laid in 1866. telephone link between the United Kingdom and North America was
laid in the early 1990s).
1.2 LIVING RESOURCES
Fishing is probably humanity's oldest marine activity, and is still one of
the most important. We use many types of marine plants and animals,
mainly for food but also for other materials such as oils and
pharmaceuticals. The kinds of animals caught for food in any one region
will depend on their availability and the demand for them, which used
to be governed primarily by such factors as regional taste and the extent
of other food resources, but is now commonly influenced by the size of
the export market. Along shores and in some estuaries and coastal
waters, certain molluscs (e.g. scallops, clams, cockles, mussels and
oysters) and crustaceans (e.g. lobsters, crabs, prawns and shrimps)
provide limited but lucrative catches. Most of these live in the intertidal
zone or on the sea-bed, and may be gathered by hand or caught in
baited traps. Some molluscs (e.g. mussels and oysters) grow attached to
solid surfaces, and can therefore be grown on long lines or moveable
frames and easily collected (Figure 1.3(a),(b)). Also, fish farming of high
value species has increased greatly since the 1970s (Figure 1.3(c)).
10
(a)
Figure 1.3 Aquaculture (mariculture) in Loch
Etive, Scotland, (a) and (b) mussel farming using
a long-line system; (c) fish enclosures for salmon
farming.
(c)
Fish are most abundant and accessible in continental shelf seas and
shallow coastal waters (Figure 1.4). Those that spend most of their time
near the bottom are termed demersal fish and may be round (e.g. cod,
haddock) or flat (e.g. sole, halibut). Those that spend at least some time
near the surface (e.g. anchovy, herring, mackerel, tuna, sardines) are
called pelagic fish.
1.2.1 FISHING METHODS
Fish are caught in many ways. Otter or beam trawls are commonly used
for cod and plaice, which tend to escape upwards when disturbed, and
are trapped because the upper edge of the mouth of the net is trawled in
advance of the lower part. Purse-seine nets are often used to take those
pelagic fish that form shoals, such as herring (Figure 1.5). Also used for
this purpose are drift nets, which just hang from floats and may be up