From community-based to centralised national management—A wrong turning for the governance of the marine protected area in Apo Island,Philippines?

Before the mid-1990s, Apo Island, Philippines, was often described as one of the world's best examples of community-based marine management. This paper studies the less-documented transition of the island during the late 1990s from community-based management to centralised national state management. Extensive interviewing of islanders has revealed deep misgivings about the centralised regime—the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB). PAMB's aim of implementing the National Integrated Protected Areas Systems (NIPAS) Act was initially looked upon favourably by islanders, but it has lost that support because of its exclusion of stakeholders from management and its poor institutional performance. The paper's conclusion is that the implementation of the NIPAS Act highlights the limitations of top-down management, and that there is a need to restore an element of local stakeholder participation in the governance of Apo's marine protected area (MPA). A system of co-management between community and national state actors is essential to ensure the long-term sustainability of Apo's marine resources.     

User fees as sustainable financing mechanisms for marine protected areas: An application to the Bonaire National Marine Park

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have proliferated globally in the past three decades. However, inadequate funding often prevents these management regimes from fulfilling their missions. Managers have become increasingly aware that successful protection of marine ecosystems is dependent not only upon an understanding of their biological and physical processes, but also their associated social and economic aspects. Unfortunately, economic values associated with MPAs and the natural resources they protect are rarely considered in decision-making and policy development. This study addresses this information gap by examining scuba divers’ willingness to pay for access to quality recreational sites in the Bonaire National Marine Park, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. The findings indicate that the US$10 annual diver user fee in effect at the time of the study could be increased substantially without a significant adverse effect on island tourism. Depending on question format, mean willingness to pay for annual access ranged from US$61 to US$134 (2002$). All model specifications support the conclusion that doubling the US$10 user fee would have virtually no impact on visitation rates. The increased revenue generated from this sustainable financing mechanism is more than sufficient to fund both current and enhanced marine park operations.     

Tropical shrimp trawl fisheries: Fishers’ knowledge of and attitudes about a doomed fishery

Tropical shrimp trawl fisheries are unsustainable, and similar sets of management measures are used globally to address the direct and indirect costs of their practices. Yet little is known about shrimp fishers’ perceptions, despite the clear importance of human behaviour in determining the success of fisheries management. This article presents the results of interviews with industrial shrimp trawl fishers from the southern Gulf of California, Mexico, and reveals fishers’ knowledge and attitudes that should be considered when developing management plans for industrial shrimp trawl fisheries. Fishers were asked to comment on problems facing the fishery, management options to address the issues, and the future of the fishery in general. The interviews also elicited new knowledge on effort and valuable components of bycatch, useful to the management process. Among the problems facing the Gulf of California fishery, fishers tended to identify those generated externally—fluctuations in shrimp populations, increases in fishing effort, decreases in shrimp prices and increasing overheads—and thus distance themselves from responsibility for management options. The successes of any mitigation measures for the fishery are likely to depend on proper enforcement and reliable governance, as our study indicates. Should strong enforcement be put in place, then trawl free areas seem to be the most pragmatic way to alleviate problems associated with the fishery; our effort data point to areas that might have greatest acceptance among fishers. A reduction in capacity would clearly complement marine zoning for trawl free areas. In the long run, however, it may be economic extinction of the fishery that reduces pressure on the marine ecosystem.     

中德海洋空间规划法律体系建设及启示

文章针对中国海洋空间规划涉及的法律、行政法规和地方法规,以及德国海洋空间规划相关领域法律法规进行梳理。在核心法律、立法体系层次、涉及海域、与陆地空间规划的联系4个方面对两国海洋空间规划法律体系进行异同分析,探讨我国未来可行的海洋空间规划法制建设方向。提出推动海洋空间规划专项立法,规范地方立法建设,重视专属经济区与大陆架空间规划,有机结合陆海空间规划等建议。同时展望了我国和世界海洋空间规划法律体系的建设趋势。     

Natural background and anthropogenic inputs of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in sediments of South-Western Barents Sea

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were measured in sediment cores from 13 locations in South-Western Barents Sea as part of a detailed study of the Norwegian seabed under the MAREANO program. The generally low PAH levels found, an average around 200 ng g⁻¹ dry weight for sum PAH, indicate low inputs of petroleum hydrocarbons to the marine environment in the area. Differences in PAH composition and various PAH ratios indicate a natural, mostly petrogenic origin of PAH in sediments from the open sea locations, while the fjord locations show higher pyrogenic PAH contents with an increase towards upper sediment layers, indicating low inputs from human activities. Petrogenic PAH levels increase in deeper sediments at open sea locations, also when normalised to total organic carbon (TOC) contents, suggesting natural leakages of oil-related hydrocarbons in the area.     

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.     

Multi-element otolith chemistry of juvenile sole (Solea solea), whiting (Merlangius merlangus) and European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) in the Thames Estuary and adjacent coastal regions

Estuaries are regarded as valuable nursery habitats for many commercially important marine fishes, potentially providing a thermal resource, refuge from predators and a source of abundant prey. To assess the extent of estuarine use by juvenile (0+) common sole (Solea solea), whiting (Merlangius merlangus) and European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) we: (1) developed techniques to distinguish between estuarine and coastally-caught juveniles using otolith chemistry; and (2) examined the accuracy with which multi-elemental signatures could re-classify juveniles to their region of collection.High-resolution solution-based inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HB-SB-ICPMS) was used to quantify 32 elements within the juvenile otoliths; 14 elements occurred above detection limits for all samples. Some elemental distributions demonstrated clear differences between estuarine and coastally-caught fish. Multivariate analysis of the otolith chemistry data resulted in 95–100% re-classification accuracy to the region of collection. Estuarine and coastal signatures were most clearly defined for sole which, compared to bass and whiting, have low mobility and are less likely to move from estuarine to coastal habitats between larval settlement and later migration to adult stocks. Sole were the only species to reveal an energetic benefit associated with an estuarine juvenile phase. The physiological ability of bass to access upper estuarine regions was consistent with some elemental data, while the high mobility and restricted range of whiting resulted in less distinct otolith chemistries.     

Optimum selection of design parameters for transportation of offshore structures

A probabilistic framework is presented to select the design significant wave height and design transverse rotation for typical barges used in the Gulf of Mexico for marine transportation of structural elements and/or systems. The selection of design transverse rotation is based on optimization procedure that trade-off between the performance of the barge subjected to a meteorological-oceanographic (metocean) hazard along the route and losses by structural damage. For this purpose probabilistic models to estimate the metocean hazard for marine transportation are shown. Afterwards, the design rotation is linked to the design of significant wave height and to the return period associated with such wave conditions. The formulation is applied to an offshore transportation route in the Gulf of Mexico.     

How well do ecosystem indicators communicate the effects of anthropogenic eutrophication?

Anthropogenic eutrophication affects the Mediterranean, Black, North and Baltic Seas to various extents. Responses to nutrient loading and methods of monitoring relevant indicators vary regionally, hindering interpretation of ecosystem state changes and preventing a straightforward pan-European assessment of eutrophication symptoms. Here we summarize responses to nutrient enrichment in Europe's seas, comparing existing time-series of selected pelagic (phytoplankton biomass and community composition, turbidity, N:P ratio) and benthic (macro flora and faunal communities, bottom oxygen condition) indicators based on their effectiveness in assessing eutrophication effects. Our results suggest that the Black Sea and Northern Adriatic appear to be recovering from eutrophication due to economic reorganization in the Black Sea catchment and nutrient abatement measures in the case of the Northern Adriatic. The Baltic is most strongly impacted by eutrophication due to its limited exchange and the prevalence of nutrient recycling. Eutrophication in the North Sea is primarily a coastal problem, but may be exacerbated by climatic changes. Indicator interpretation is strongly dependent on sea-specific knowledge of ecosystem characteristics, and no single indicator can be employed to adequately compare eutrophication state between European seas. Communicating eutrophication-related information to policy-makers could be facilitated through the use of consistent indicator selection and monitoring methodologies across European seas. This work is discussed in the context of the European Commission's recently published Marine Strategy Directive.