Oceans and Coasts

"Ocean, who is the source of all." --Homer, c. 700 B.C.

Key Facts on oceans and coasts

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Seas Under Siege
Seeking Solutions
Taking Community Action
The Dying Oceans
The Eco-Volunteer Movement

The oceans, though they cover more than 70 per cent of the Earth's surface, are often taken for granted. More than 3.5 billion people depend on the ocean for their primary source of food, and more than half the world's population lives within 60 kilometres of the shoreline, a figure which could rise to three quarters by the year 2020. As important as the oceans are coastal areas, which contain diverse and productive habitats important for human settlements, development and local subsistence. Coastal resources are vital for many local communities and indigenous people. The exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which extends 320 kilometres out to sea, is an important marine area where countries are responsible for managing the development and conservation of natural resources for the benefit of their people.

The oceans also have become a network of shipping lanes and a supplier of energy, minerals and medicines. These contributions will grow as technology advances and the resources of the land become more scarce.

Since they cover most of the Earth's surface, oceans have a great influence on climate, and contribute significantly to the habitability of our planet. There are more than 120 species of mammals in the oceans, as well as numerous types of other forms of life. Oceans also attract tourists to their shores, thus providing a vital source of income to many countries.

Recognizing that the oceans, and the communities that depend on them, are under threat, the world's governments declared through Agenda 21 that the world needs "new approaches to marine and coastal area management and development, at the national, subregional and global levels."

Seas Under Siege

Once thought to be so vast and resilient that no level of human insult could damage them, ocean and especially coastal resources are now under threat of ecological collapse due to mismanagement and abuse, according to significant and growing evidence. With increasing frequency, ocean disasters are commanding world attention. Medical waste has washed ashore, causing many beaches to be closed in the eastern United States. Hundreds of beaches along the Italian Adriatic were once off limits due to the infestation of algae. In Alaska, a supertanker hit a reef and dumped a quarter million barrels of oil into one of the world's richest fishing grounds.

Though such catastrophes are definitely worthy of international attention, other less sensational but no less harmful dangers are wreaking havoc on oceans and coastal areas. Most wastes created on land end up in the sea. Oceans and coastlines around the world-from the coasts of West Africa to the pristine Arctic-are littered by plastics and debris. Both buoyant and persistent, plastic fishing nets and lines, packing bands and bags choke or strangle marine organisms through ingestion or entanglement.

Humans are treating the ocean like a giant trash receptacle. Organic chemicals, such as DDT and PCBs, are now common contaminants in marine waters and are responsible for reproductive defects in marine organisms. Because of high concentrations of organic chemicals and heavy metals, fisheries have been closed over health concerns. The discharge of largely untreated municipal sewage, containing both human and industrial waste, is one of the largest sources of contamination in coastal waters and will probably increase as populations in coastal regions continue to grow.

Oil spills are devastating marine habitats and killing fish, mammals and birds. Although the large spills attract spectacular media attention for a few days, far more oil silently finds its way into the oceans from street runoff, ships flushing their tanks and effluent from industrial facilities. An estimated 21 million barrels of oil annually enters the seas this way, many times more than the 600,000 barrels accidentally spilled on average each year over the last decade.

Coastal habitats are being destroyed around the world to make room for urban development or to build agricultural fields and aquaculture ponds. More than one-third of Ecuador's mangroves have been converted to ponds for a rapidly growing shrimp-farm industry, and Philippine mangroves have been nearly completely wiped out to make room for aquaculture expansion.

Overfishing also is threatening the living creatures of the sea, an important resource that has long supplied humanity with food, oils and useful materials. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 70 per cent of the world's commercial fishing grounds are depleted, fully exploited or recovering from previous overfishing. Marine mammals

Marine mammals worldwide are suffering from heavy pressure from incidental catches in coastal small-scale fisheries and on the high seas driftnet fisheries. Other factors of concern are pollution, habitat loss and degradation, especially in coastal areas.

Coral reefs, home to an estimated one million species of life, are being choked by rivers that are laden with sediment from deforested lands or eroded agricultural fields. Reefs also are mined for jewelry or construction material. Voracious fisherfolk, seeking an easy way to net a large catch, sometimes throw dynamite into the water to kill fish. The result, besides devastating entire schools of fish, is the destruction of their habitat.

The world's living marine resources also are subject to extreme pressures from increasingly sophisticated fishing technologies and the expanding scope of large-scale, industrialized fishing activities.

Aside from these problems, the future of the planet's oceans are confronted with other challenges, including the protection of Antarctica and sea-level rise. Because of Antarctica's unique nature, an international effort will be required to protect its vast resources. The fragile marine ecosystems of the Antarctic are currently threatened by overfishing, waste disposal and minerals development.

Seeking Solutions

The world's oceans are a vast commons that all nations must strive to protect. The World Commission on Environment and Development concluded in Our Common Future that "sustainable development, if not survival itself, depends on significant advances in the management of the oceans."

UNEP, in its State of the Marine Environment report for 1990, declared that "If coastal development and habitat degradation continue at their current rates, there will be global deterioration in the quality and productivity of the marine environment."

Furthermore, according to United Nations reports, the marine environment could deteriorate significantly in the next decade unless strong, coordinated national and international action is taken now. The efforts will be great and the costs high, but nothing less will ensure the continued health of the sea and the maintenance of its resources.

Today, the United Nations, through UNEP, is addressing the challenge of the oceans in more than 160 countries with 12 "Regional Seas Programmes." These programmes monitor conditions and recommend government action in the Mediterranean, the Kuwait region, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the wider Caribbean, the Atlantic coast of West and Central Africa, the Eastern African seaboard, the Pacific coast of South America, the islands of the South Pacific, the Northwest Pacific, the Black Sea, the East Asian region and the South Asian Sea.

Taking Community Action

While there is much that can be done at the governmental level to prevent the further deterioration of ocean and coastal ecosystems, it is at the community level that sustainable change needs to occur. Through an effective mobilization of your community, and the direct action of your organization, ocean and coastal regions can be preserved. This section introduces some suggestions that your community could consider when drawing up its action plan to help preserve the sustainability of oceans and coastal resources. However, it will be the creative and motivated activity of your own particular community that will determine the long-term success of your efforts.

• Locate ocean pollution at its source. Oceans and coastal areas need to be protected from harmful wastes. One important and relatively easy way to manage sources of ocean pollution is to prohibit deliberate at-sea disposal of wastes that degrade the marine environment. Your community may have to engage in some investigative work, first locating the pollution and then tracking it to its source. Some of the evidence of harmful waste you may find are toxic industrial wastes, radioactive waste and sewage sludge.
  
  
• Cooperate with other groups. Work with your local government, business and industry to find alternatives to the ocean disposal of sewage sludge and municipal, hazardous, and radioactive wastes. Research successful stories in other communities, and introduce these successes to government and business.
  
  
• Pursue partnership with your government. At a national level, find out if your government has ratified the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal, and if it is enforcing its principles in your country.
  
  
• Control urban runoff. Mobilize both your organization and other community groups to do everything possible to control this source of ocean contamination. Everything that gets dumped onto the street, into drains, and in vacant lots eventually reaches the sea, river or lake in your area. Rainfall washes these wastes into local waterways and contributes vast quantities of sediment, nutrients, bacteria and toxic chemicals (organics, heavy metals, oil and grease) that pollute them. Necessary control programmes range from simple maintenance efforts such as street sweeping to construction of projects that will prevent polluted runoff from entering nearby streams.
  
  
• Help to educate your community. Your organization could launch a community awareness programme to educate the public to, for example, minimize the use of polluting chemicals around the house, yard and garden.
  
  
• Keep the seas oil-free. Oil spills have devastating effects on aquatic ecosystems. In order to preserve the marine environment from irreversible devastation, sensitive areas should be closed to oil and gas development. In areas where oil tankers must pass, there should be strict tanker traffic control patterns. For a community to accomplish this will require working with local government to ensure that it is aware of the cost-benefit ratio of offshore oil exploration and its environmental effects.
  
• Promote energy efficiency. By improving energy efficiency, your community will reduce its demand for oil, and thus reduce the chances of a devastating oil spill occurring off your coastline. The less oil being consumed will mean fewer ships coming to your ports. For ideas and suggestions on how to mobilize your community organization to improve efficiency in the use of oil, refer to the chapter on Energy.
  
  
• Discourage littering. The disposal of plastic material on land and from ships litters beaches and seriously damages marine life, particularly sea mammals, diving birds and reptiles, who may be hurt or killed when trying to eat plastic fragments, or trapped in plastic packing and fishing gear. Enforcement of existing regulations on land and at sea, and increased public awareness, should reduce the amount of plastic refuse that litters the oceans and coastal areas. Help prevent the pollution of beaches and ocean and coastal waters through education, strict monitoring and the enforcement of penalties. Mobilize your organization to remove debris that is floating or has washed up on shore. The military or coast guard also could be involved in this task, together with local organizations and citizen groups in a community-wide "Clean Up the Beach" campaign over a weekend.
  
  
  
  
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  Reduce your contribution to global warming. Sea-level rise is a problem that is confronting many islands and coastal regions around the world, especially small island states like Barbados and the Maldives. The culprit is the greenhouse effect, primarily caused by carbon emissions. For more information on this issue, and for tips on how a community can get involved in possible solutions, refer to the chapter on Atmosphere.
  
  
  Promote sustainable yields in fisheries. As an organization, you can stop overfishing by encouraging your government to legislate regulations within the framework of adequate management procedures. Work with other organizations, your local government and the appropriate international organizations to ban the use of large-scale driftnets and other wasteful techniques on the high seas of the world's oceans. If you live in a country with large fishing fleets, this is especially critical. Work to secure bans on driftnet fishing through regional and international agreements.
  
  
  Work to protect marine biodiversity. As a community organization, there is much you can do to assist in the preservation of marine biodiversity. Your efforts will be most effective when implemented in partnership with other organizations, the business community and government. You can work with your local and national government to protect critical habitat by establishing protected areas and marine sanctuaries. Include within this definition of protected area all important coral reefs. You also can encourage your government to establish economic incentives for the protection of critical habitat and disincentives for its destruction, and ask them to remove all economic incentives that promote unwise coastal development.
  
  

The Dying Oceans

As the situation worsens, the life of the oceans is dying en masse. Following are a few statistics:

Species	Past Population	Recent Population
Declines
Blue Whale	200,000	2,000
Right Whale	200,000	3,000
Bowhead Whale	120,000	6,000
Humpback Whale	125,000	10,000
Sei Whale	200,000	25,000
Fin Whale	470,000	110,000
Northern Sea Lion	154,000	66,000
Juan Fernandez Fur Seal	4,000,000	600
Recoveries
Pacific Gray Whale	10,000	21,000
Dugong	30,000	55,000
Walrus	50,000	280,000
Galapagos Fur Seal	near extinction	30,000
Antarctic Fur Seal	near extinction	1,530,000
Extinctions
Atlantic Gray Whale		extinct, c. 1730
Steller's Sea Cow		extinct, c. 1768
Sea Mink		extinct, c. 1880

Past population refers to mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Recent population refers to the late 1980s to present. Source: Trends from Ed Ayres, "Many Marine Mammal Populations Declining," in Lester R. Brown, Hal Kane, and Ed Ayres, Vital Signs 1993 (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993); extinctions from David Day, The Doomsday Book of Animals: A Natural History of Vanished Species (New York: Viking Press, 1981).

The Eco-Volunteer Movement
A Success Story

The concept of eco-volunteers first surfaced among delegates to the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992, who sought to locate and empower the hundreds of volunteers already working in every country to improve the environment and welfare of their communities.

The programme to emerge from this vision was first funded as a pilot project through the United Nations Volunteers and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). It is managed by the Nairobi-based Environmental Liaison Centre International (ELCI), a network of more than 800 environmental groups in nearly 100 countries. ELCI delegates responsibility to a single member NGO in each country which then selects the eco-volunteers. The NGO coordinates the programme in its country, making good use of local knowledge.

Many of these volunteers working in the programme are involved in concerns related to the oceans and coastal resources. Isabel Butler of Nova Scotia, Canada, is one of them. A long-time community and environmental activist, she has been involved in numerous projects and initiatives to keep her coastline clean. Many of these efforts have spread far beyond her own Atlantic coast community and serve as a model for people around the world.

The Ship to Shore Trash Campaign, started by the Maritime Fishermen's Union, has focused on encouraging fisherfolk and others to bag their trash and bring it back to land for disposal, rather than simply tossing it over the side into the ocean. The campaign has spread through the Atlantic coast of Canada to four provinces and has changed the habits of hundreds of inshore fisherfolk. Butler, who was instrumental in organizing the campaign, said she stressed the need for environmentalists and fisherfolk to work together rather than opposing each other. A far-reaching result of her efforts is a continuing liaison between the Maritime Fishermen's Union and the Oceans Caucus of the Canadian Environmental Network.

Contact:

References

Global Marine Biological Diversity: A Strategy for Building Conservation into Decision Making, Elliot A. Norse, ed., Island Press, Washington, DC 1993 - Marine Environment, UNEP Profile, United Nations Environment Programme - Our Common Future; The World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987 - Our Living Oceans: The First Annual Report on the Status of U.S. Living Marine Resources, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Washington, DC, 1991 - Safeguarding Oceans and Water Resources, Background Paper for the Interparliamentary Conference on the Global Environment, May 1990 - World Resources, 1994-95: A Guide to the Global Environment, a report by the World Resources Institute in collaboration with UNEP and the United Nations Development Programme, Oxford University Press, 1994.

All photos, text and illustrations Copyright ©1996 The United Nations Environment Programme.