Ocean Zone News Blog

Scientific American

Regulating activity across the seas could halt and reverse damage
By Tundi Agardy

By now the world is aware that the oceans are dying a silent death because of coastal development, pollution, overfishing and climate change. Scientists know how to halt or reverse the chronic threats, but in the political arena they have faced defeat after defeat in trying to implement management that actually works. We need a radical shift away from the piecemeal regulation of small areas that has resulted. We need comprehensive zoning of the world’s oceans.

Sacramento for Democracy blogs – http://sacramentofordemocracy.org/?q=blog

This great article by Judith Vidaver of the Ocean Protection Coalition, published in the coalition’s June newsletter, strongly opposes Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s corrupt fast-track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Process. There is nothing “green” about this process that aims to kick sustainable seaweed harvesters, fishermen and abalone divers off Point Arena to pave the way for offshore oil rigs, wave energy projects and corporate aquaculture.

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Robert Walker

I am of the opinion that opinions too often do not advance the discourse on a particular issue, but fracture it further if no one bothers to address others’ contentions.

One recent writer to the Sentinel says it’s not over-fishing, but declining habitat that reduced local salmon populations, and that generally, local ocean waters are not stressed or over-fished. Another says the Boston cod industry was reduced by over-fishing, and thus, Central Coast fisheries need to be protected from a similar fate; one other says protecting certain marine areas causes over-fishing in other areas.

terradaily.com

(Editors Note: see emphasis on spatial planning as an instrument to address climate change.)

Bonn, Germany (SPX) Jun 29, 2009

Two new reports examining climate change adaptation and policy making across Europe will be launched today in Brussels in the presence of Peter Gammeltoft, Head of Unit ‘Protection of Water and Marine Environment’ at the European Commission. The preliminary conclusions of the research were used in the European Commission’s White Paper on climate change, published in April 2009.

UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, UK

8 June 2009, Cambridge – At a time when the world’s oceans are facing unprecedented pressures from human impacts in the marine environment, a new decision-making tool is being launched to provide the most current and relevant information about marine and coastal biodiversity and its protection status.

This marine protected areas tool ( www.wdpa-marine.org), created by the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is part of the recently redeveloped World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) – the authoritative and most globally comprehensive list of marine and terrestrial protected areas.