Organizational responsiveness: The case of unfolding crises and problem detection within HELCOM

How and to what extent do international organizations detect, process and react to different types of change within their policy domains? This study addresses this question by combining a unique data set consisting of policy documents from the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) with data measuring ecosystem change in the Baltic Sea during the period 1980–2013. Here HELCOM's responses to two types of ecosystem changes are investigated: fast and visible (summer algae blooms) and slow and opaque (anoxic areas). Finally, this study assesses if the organizational reform of 2007, which introduced the ecosystem approach, has had any effects on HELCOM responsiveness. It is found that HELCOM, contrary to expectations, is only responding systematically to slow-moving and opaque processes but that this response confirms the anticipated organizational bottom-up pattern. The ecosystem approach reform seems to have had a negative effect on the responsiveness of HELCOM; however, a general trend is that HELCOM over time has become more responsive in the lower levels of the organization. The lack of an immediate effect regarding the ecosystem approach reform can serve as a reminder of the absence of panaceas in policy making in general, and in environmental governance in particular.     

Shaping an international agreement on marine biodiversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction: Lessons from high seas fisheries

A decade of international discussion on marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction (BBNJ) culminated in 2015 with a United Nations General Assembly Resolution to establish an international legally-binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of BBNJ. Proponents of the new instrument therefore consider it as an opportunity to eliminate gaps in the current legal regime and promote better coordination. As the next step in the negotiations begins, substantial lessons can be drawn from the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA), which has faced many of the same challenges related to gaps in scientific knowledge, uneven governance and regulatory capacities, and inherent unpredictability, both ecologically and in terms of anthropogenic drivers of change. For BBNJ, however, such challenges are far more complex due to the diversity of stakeholder communities and the diversity of resources involved, including fish and mineral resources with tangible economic values, marine genetic resources of unknown value, and the culturally-specific values attached to charismatic species and conservation in general. Drawing on lessons from UNFSA, it is argued that the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) under the BBNJ instrument would be particularly well served by a similar regional approach aligned with existing international agreements. In this regard, it is recommended that the capacity building under the new international instrument on BBNJ should focus inter alia on the secretariats of the regional fishery management organizations in order to enhance intra-regional and inter-regional cooperation and sharing of best practices.     

Liner shipping and information exchange—a European perspective

The European Commission (EC) is currently reviewing Council Regulation 4056/86, which includes the proposal by the European Liner Affairs Association (ELAA) to put in place a regulatory instrument for an information exchange system. The White Paper of the EC, issued in 2004, which provides a comprehensive discussion of the key issues including the ELAA proposal, is examined. The implications of the removal of Regulation 4056/86 and the application of this information exchange instrument in its place are studied. Arising from the protection afforded by antitrust immunity for nearly 100 years owners appear to have developed a fear of the unknown regarding an unregulated environment.     

Contemporary challenges: globalisation,global interconnectedness and that ‘there are not plenty more fish in the sea’.: Fisheries,Governance and globalisation: is there a relationship?

The article offers an analysis of the globalisation debate in the context of international fisheries governance. It argues that there are significant transformations in fisheries policy-making in international economics, international institutions and international law-making which alter state authority in fisheries management. Thus, decision-making at international, regional and national levels is increasing, displaced from the state level. This ‘multi-level’ decision-making is exemplified in the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation's Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, 1995. The Code represents a sound instrument of fisheries governance, capable of responding to contemporary global transformations. Changes are illustrated by comparing the Code and the Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, 1995, in the areas of international economics, institutions and law-making. Reference is made to interaction between a range of actors and to formal and informal procedures. In conclusion, a process of ‘fisheries governance’ is confirmed, emerging from a new environment of international fisheries relations.     

The international ocean regime at the new millennium: a survey of the contemporary legal order

This study surveys the international regime governing the use of ocean space by examining various agreements that have come to comprise it. While the regime for the oceans is commonly viewed within the context of a general, universal convention for the law of the sea, the contemporary scope of global oceans law extends far beyond that single instrument. Indeed, the law of the sea is broad, far-reaching and reflective of the increasingly complex, interdependent nature of contemporary international relations. In this regard, by end of the 20th century there has emerged a pronounced trend toward worldwide participation in and adherence to the multifaceted legal regime established to manage the oceans. This panorama of legal instruments focuses both on international instruments and regional accords. The study's premise is this: Since 1958 several multilateral agreements have been negotiated and implemented specifically to regulate various uses of ocean space. Viewed as an integrated whole, these agreements comprise at the beginning of the 21st century an intertwined, sophisticated international legal regime for managing ocean activities. The range of agreements discussed here, however, is neither exhaustive nor meant to suggest that sufficient law is available for regulating all activities affecting the oceans now or in the future. Rather, the survey furnishes a starting point for appreciating just how far the international community has come in establishing a legal regime for managing people and their technological activities that impact on ocean space.     

The hesitant emergence of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) in fisheries policies in Europe

The dismal record of fisheries management worldwide is often blamed on managers' and scientists' bigoted pursuit of the flawed Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) objective. This paper aims at clarifying that MSY has never been a key element in the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), and has not been for several decades the basis of scientific advice provided in support of that policy. The recent emergence of MSY in debates about the CFP might be a rhetoric response to international pressure rather than a willing change in policy. The major danger of assigning the notorious failure of the CFP to a wrong culprit, MSY, is to distract research efforts away from investigating the real causes that likely lay in the institutional set-up. Many objections against the reference points associated with MSY, as targets or limits, are well-founded but controversies among experts, when left unbridled, just provide the opportune climate for politicians to delay actions in the direction of reduced fishing impacts on fish stocks and marine ecosystems.     

Integrated management of marine biodiversity in Europe: Perspectives from ICZM and the evolving EU Maritime Policy framework

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is high on the international agenda for nature conservation. Marine and coastal ecosystems account for an important share of the biological diversity on Earth. As a consequence many international conventions, European legislation and national laws refer to marine biodiversity. The protection of marine biodiversity is a complex legal issue as it requires consideration of geographic (between land and sea), political (between conservation and exploitation), and economic (between fisheries, tourism, intellectual property and many other sectors) factors. Like Matryoshka dolls, marine biodiversity is a heterogeneous notion difficult to address as one discrete area in the development of policy agendas or juridical frameworks. In the past decade, the EU has been very active in Promoting Integrated Coastal Zone Management and in developing a framework for an Integrated Maritime Policy. This article reviews the status of marine biodiversity in the policy and legal initiatives of the European Union, a challenging issue to both the objectives of conservation and to the concept of integration.     

Marine science and technology transfer: Can the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission advance governance of biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction?

Marine scientific research is crucial to forge solutions in the development of a new international legally binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea . The transfer of marine technology, capacity development and marine genetic resources are key issues. This paper examines how the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), as a competent international organisation for marine scientific research and technology transfer, can inform the development of the instrument. Synergies between marine technology transfer and non-monetary benefit sharing of genetic resources are illustrated. Four key lessons from the IOC are examined: 1. Coordinating international cooperation in marine scientific research; 2. Enabling open access to data and knowledge; 3. Facilitating capacity development through scientific training and education; and 4. Governance of marine scientific research. Realising the potential of the IOC to advance governance solutions for ABNJ will depend on increased political will from Member States and strengthened partnerships to reduce resource constraints and enhance the IOC's capacity at global and regional scales.     

The whaling issue: Conservation,confusion, and casuistry

Morishita's “multiple analysis” of the whaling issue [Morishita J. Multiple analysis of the whaling issue: Understanding the dispute by a matrix. Marine Policy 2006;30:802–8] is essentially a restatement of the Government of Japan's whaling policy, which confuses the issue through selective use of data, unsubstantiated facts, and the vilification of opposing perspectives. Here, we deconstruct the major problems with Morishita's article and provide an alternative view of the whaling dispute. For many people in this debate, the issue is not that some whales are not abundant, but that the whaling industry cannot be trusted to regulate itself or to honestly assess the status of potentially exploitable populations. This suspicion has its origin in Japan's poor use of science, its often implausible stock assessments, its insistence that culling is an appropriate way to manage marine mammal populations, and its relatively recent falsification of whaling and fisheries catch data combined with a refusal to accept true transparency in catch and market monitoring. Japanese policy on whaling cannot be viewed in isolation, but is part of a larger framework involving a perceived right to secure unlimited access to global marine resources. Whaling is inextricably tied to the international fisheries agreements on which Japan is strongly dependent; thus, concessions made at the IWC would have potentially serious ramifications in other fora.     

Sustaining marine life beyond boundaries: Options for an implementing agreement for marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

For nearly a decade, governments have been discussing the need to improve efforts to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Support for a new international agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) – an Implementing Agreement – on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in ABNJ has been growing. In June 2012, at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, States agreed to take a decision on the development of an international instrument under UNCLOS before the end of the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which runs from September 2014 to August 2015. In follow-up to this commitment, it was agreed to consider the “scope, parameters and feasibility” of this instrument. To inform these international discussions, this article highlights some potential options for the content of a new UNCLOS Implementing Agreement. It first reviews the history of UN discussions, and then elaborates on options to address key elements identified as priorities for States in 2011: marine genetic resources, including the sharing of benefits, area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments, capacity-building and the transfer of marine technology. It addresses cross-cutting issues such as the governing principles, institutional structure as well as on other critical points such as High Seas fishing and flag State responsibilities. The article concludes with suggestions on possible next steps in order to succeed in the negotiations for an agreement.     

Marine spatial planning: Lessons learned from the Portuguese debate

This paper presents and discusses legal, methodological and political frameworks for the development of the proposed Portuguese Marine Spatial Plan initiated in 2008. It considers lessons learned and is informed by discussions that have taken place since publication of the ‘Roadmap for Maritime Spatial Planning: Achieving Common Principles in the EU’. New goals are based on horizontal planning tools that cut across sea-related sectoral policies and support joined up policy making. It is in this context that Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) emerged as an essential process for sustainable decision making. The OSPAR Commission undertook an overview of national planning systems within its administrative boundaries, which confirmed spatial plans reduced conflicts. However, problems exist accessing good quality data and dealing with entrenched sectoral views. Furthermore, the transboundary nature of marine resources requires cooperation between neighbouring states. In 2006, Portugal developed a ‘National Sea Strategy’ that recognized the importance of developing its maritime space while valuing marine habitats and biodiversity. MSP development of the Portuguese sea commenced in 2008 and findings are now evaluated. They showed adaptation of existing tools to be possible and desirable, provided undertaken cautiously and found conceptual ambiguities were barriers to conflict resolution. Furthermore they showed management strategies should be designed and analysed on a case by case basis, recognising temporal and spatial variations.     

Compromise in the IWC: Is it possible or desirable?

It is widely assumed that a compromise position must be reached between pro- and anti-whaling groupings within the International Whaling Commission. This assumption is based on the belief that the Commission will collapse in the absence of any such compromise, and has been the driving force behind a number of compromise proposals in recent years. This paper argues that the fundamental positions of the two groups are so different, and that both groups are getting enough from the current position as to make it unattractive to either group to make any serious concessions toward a compromise position.The suggested solution is for the two groups to “agree to disagree”; using the resulting improvement in goodwill between them to focus on cooperation on those aspects of whale conservation on which they can agree.     

International legal options for the control of biofouling on international vessels

Shipping represents a threat as a vector for the transfer of non-indigenous marine species through the discharge of ballast water and biofouling of vessels’ external structures and internal piping. While considerable attention has been given to the management of ballast water, there currently exists no international legal instrument with which to control biofouling.A number of existing legal mechanisms may be applicable in the context of coastal States’ rights under international law. However, existing mechanisms are insufficient to regulate all aspects of the biofouling problem to ensure comprehensive management of the issue. There is, therefore, a need for the development of a comprehensive international agreement to address this gap. The issue of biofouling on international vessels has now been included on the work programme of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). As a contribution to discussions on how to address this particular issue at an international level, this article provides an analysis of the options available through the IMO to address this issue.Having defined the specific “threat scenario” with regard to hull fouling, the article will consider: (i) the international legal framework that has been established to regulate the harmful impacts of international shipping; (ii) the range of practical measures that are available to manage biofouling on vessels; and (iii) international legal options available to States to address the threat of biofouling posed by international shipping.     

Fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the utilization of marine genetic resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction: Bridging the gaps between science and policy

Marine genetic resources are a subject of a growing body of research and development activities, as demonstrated by the abundance of marine patented genes reported in GenBank. Given the lack of a comprehensive legal regime for the management of marine genetic resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction, the General Assembly of the United Nations met in 2006 to discuss whether there are regulatory or governance gaps and how to address them. Besides the crystallization of the different political positions, the process is now advancing towards making a decision about whether to develop an international instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity, within which the regulation of access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits from their utilization has emerged as an in-dissociable issue. In order to propose concrete options to be considered for the establishment of a legal framework addressing these issues, policy-makers need to better understand the feasibility, the costs and the modalities of scientific activities undertaken, together with the actual level of commercialization of new products. They also need to be aware of the already advanced practices in place within the scientific community, especially regarding sharing of non-monetary benefits. This paper particularly highlights and discusses practical scenarios to advance in the international process, based on the approaches adopted in other regional and international regimes for the management of genetic resources and on the best practices developed within the scientific community.     

New Zealand’s quota management system: the first ten years

This paper has two aims. First, New Zealand’s quota management system is analysed using a simple analytical economic model. Second, the paper describes how the system has evolved in response to pressures since implementation. The quota management system has provided a remarkably robust platform for addressing fisheries management problems during its first ten years of operation. It also provided the government with an instrument for settling Maori fishing claims. In 1996, the unsubsidised New Zealand fishing industry exported most of its harvest to highly competitive international markets. The paper concludes with a discussion of contemporary challenges.     

Contemporary initiatives on the future of the International Whaling Commission

In his term as Chairman of the International Whaling Commission between 2006 and 2009, Dr BillHogarth championed a process for finding a way forward for the IWC. In parallel with, and in places intertwined with the Hogarth Initiative, a number of other initiatives attempting to move the IWC forward have been proposed by a range of stakeholders; both governments and NGOs. This paper traces the more important suggestions, commenting on their likelihood of success.     

Normalization of the International Whaling Commission

In 2006, the pro-whaling group within the International Whaling Commission introduced a programme of “Normalization” in an attempt to address its long held accusation that the Commission is dysfunctional. This paper traces the twin issues of dysfunctionality and normalization; it looks at the progress of the Normalization initiative so far, and assesses its likelihood of success. The paper also briefly examines “Modernization”, as an alternative for anti-whaling proponents to Normalization.     

Measurements of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in sea water by high temperature combustion method

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is the largest organic carbon reservoir in sea water and plays an imporrant role in the marine carbon cycle and other biogeochemical processes in the ocean. Accurate and precise determinalion of the bOC concentration in sea water is thus a prerequisite for any interpretation of DOC biogeochemistry. A key factor in analytical quality control is an accurate determination of the blank. The assessment and distinction of DOC blanks are essential for the precise measurements of oceanic DOC. The total DOC blank includes instrument and water blanks in the high temperature catalytic oxidation (HTCO) method. DOC can be measured accurately using the HTCO method only when the instrument blank is correctly distinguished from the total DOC blank and corrected in the sample measurements. Low DOC blanks can be achieved by extensive conditioning of new catalysts and the whole instrument system, whereas instrument blanks can be quantified by subtracting the water blank from the total DOC blank. We have been able to produce low carbon nanopure water [≤2μmol/dm³(C)] and have a low instrumental blank [< 5-6 μmol/dm³(C)] when using the HTCO method. Results of concentrations and distributions of DOC in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic are oceanographically consistent. Results from DOC measurements on samples from the international DOC methods comparison program further confirmed our low values of both nenopure water and the instrument blank.     

Determining the total ozone from geostationary earth satellites

A method for determining the total ozone (TO) with high spatial (3×3 km²) and temporal (15 min) resolutions by using measurements of the Earth’s outgoing thermal radiation from Meteosat geostationary satellites is proposed. The method is based on measurements with a SEVIRI instrument (eight IR channels) and involves additional information on the three-dimensional field of the atmospheric temperature and on the surface temperature obtained from polar satellites (AIRS instrument). The inverse problem of TO determination is solved by the method of neural networks. TO measurements with the AIRS instrument are also used for training the neural networks. Ground-based TO measurements at the international ozonometric network are used for controlling the quality of AIRS data and detecting the errors of the proposed method of TO determination from SEVIRI data. The mean and rms differences between TO values obtained with the use of the proposed method and from the results of measurements at the international ozonometric network are shown to be 1.5 and 6.5%, respectively. Examples of TO distributions reconstructed with high spatial and temporal resolutions are presented. These examples show that the elaborated method for solving various scientific and applied problems and, in particular, for investigating stratospheric dynamics is promising.     

Communication of creditable measured data

It is becoming increasingly evident that many users of measured marine data are reluctant to use data acquired by others. This reluctance is based on the feeling that the transfer function characteristics of the instrument system used for the measurements are inadequately defined for the environment in which the measurements were made. It has been estimated that in excess of 50 percent of the marine data presently archived are useless because their quality ("goodness") is unknown. It is far too costly in resources and time on both a national and international basis to continue acquiring data whose questionable credibility severely limits their spectrum of applicability. This paper addresses those key elements that relate to the quantification of data and should be considered when planning and developing a measurement program for the ocean environment.