Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
on land. We also need to consider how the exploitation of resources in the
seas would be controlled under a system of ecological governance. That I
come to this subject latterly is
tting as the development of any regulatory
structure for offshore activities, let alone one which offers effective ecolog-
ical protection, has lagged far behind the evolution of controls over terres-
trial development. This tardiness is a product of the perception of the
marine environment as
'
other
'
and the (still) prevailing
'
out of sight out of
mind
attitude towards its despoliation. However, the view of the seas as an
inexhaustible source of resources has been challenged in recent years by a
growing consciousness of: the rapid deterioration of marine ecosystem
health; the increasing pressures that resource demands are placing on the
seas despite evidence of their environmental vulnerability; and of the growth
in stresses due to the introduction of new activities to the marine environ-
ment.
117
The seas are being turned to because land-based resources are
no longer suf
'
cient to meet demands or because the means by which they
might be satis
ed on land, including, for instance, through onshore wind
farm construction, are regarded by some sections of society as unacceptable.
In view of the growing range of issues and concerns with uses of the seas,
the adequacy of long-standing practices in marine regulation has been
questioned.
118
The traditional method used by states to regulate sea uses
has been to distribute responsibility for controlling activities amongst
different agencies, but without the bene
t of a coordinating body to address
spatial con
icts between them or the cumulative environmental conse-
quences of exploitation.
119
Overarching legal frameworks for the planning
and control of the seas have also been lacking, an absence which is due in
part to the jurisdictional range of states having expanded from coastal
waters to encompass both the sea-bed and overlying waters of more distant
marine areas only during the last thirty years.
120
117
F. Douvere and C. N. Ehler,
New Perspectives on Sea Use Management: Initial
Findings from European Experience with Marine Spatial Planning
'
'
(2009) 90 Journal
of Environmental Management,77.
118
L. B. Crowder et al.,
'
Resolving Mismatches in US Ocean Governance
'
(2006) 313
Science,617;O.R.Youngetal.,
Solving the Crisis in Ocean Governance: Place-based
Management of Marine Ecosystems
'
'
(2007) 49 Environment,22.
119
A. A. Rosenberg and P. A. Sandifer,
in K. McLeod and H. Leslie
(eds) Ecosystem-based Management for the Oceans (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2009),
pp. 18
'
What DoManagers Need?
'
8; S. A. Jay, At the Margins of
Planning: Offshore Wind Farms in the UK (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2008), p. 109.
-
19; L. B. Crowder et al.,
'
Resolving Mismatches
'
,617
-
120
S. A. Jay,
'
Built at Sea: Marine Management and the Construction of Marine Spatial
Planning
6. The United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea 1982 con
rms that coastal states may exercise a limited jurisdiction
'
(2010) 81 Town Planning Review, 175
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