Ocean and Shoreline Management最新文献

In order to ensure the maintenance of natural processes, ecosystems and wildlife, nature conservation initiatives in the North Sea must attempt to resolve the conflicts between the numerous human uses of coastal and estuarine zones. The Nature Conservancy Council's reviews of geology, maritime, marine and estuarine sites, habitats and communities provide the data bases required for the development of coastal nature conservation strategies. Nature conservation in the terrestrial environment has traditionally focused on the protection of designated sites. Conservation in the marine environment requires a more integrated approach towards the planning and management of coastal and estuarine areas.

‘Every rock fisherman must have tried cunjevoi for bait, and surely every onlooker must have wondered at the stuff he cuts off the rock…its familiarity is accompanied by an almost complete ignorance of its nature.’ (From Dakin, W. J., Australian Seashores, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1952.)

Procedural aspects of management-related research on coastal ecosystems are addressed in a case study of a popular bait animal, particularly with regard to using information about the population dynamics of the species, availability, scales of resource usage, and the appropriateness of techniques of harvesting. For example, people fishing from rocks in New South Wales, Australia, commonly use ‘cunjevoi’ as bait. The cunjevoi (Pyura stolonifera) is a largely unstudied ascidian that occupies much of the space on the lower foreshore. Preliminary data are presented relating to a study of the impacts of bait collection on the population dynamics of cunjevoi. Such basic ecological information is lacking for the lower shore, and may indicate hitherto unforeseen consequences of overharvesting by fishermen. This project contributes to the understanding of the influence of recreational fishing on the marine environment. The information yielded by this sampling strategy and a pilot experiment simulating bait harvesting are related to the management questions pertinent to this type of resource system.

The classical marine pelagic foodweb description was ascribed to the North Sea in the 1920s; phytoplankton production supports planktonic animals such as the copepod crustacean, Calanus, which in turn feed herring and other pelagic fish. Later studies have shown how organic material not consumed in the water column supplies benthic communities and demersal fish.

This paper examines the pelagic ecosystems of the North Sea. They are stressed by: (1) fisheries pressure on higher trophic levels; (2) anthropogenic enrichment with nitrates and phosphates, which encourages the blooming of some types of phytoplankton; (3) climatic change; (4) input of toxins. Difficulties in obtaining and interpreting evidence of change are reviewed.

Observational evidence of change can be supplemented by understanding the nature of the pelagic ecosystem and its links with physical conditions in different parts of the North Sea. Two regions of the North Sea are examined and compared.

There are a number of so-called natural regions in the oceans, such as areas delineated on the basis of oceanographic conditions and land-sea boundaries, which may define a semi-enclosed sea. Another natural region of importance is the large marine ecosystem, which has unique hydrographic regimes, submarine topography and trophically related populations of living marine organisms. The oceans also contain functional regions based on shipping patterns, commercial fisheries, and undersea minerals. The 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea established jurisdictional regions such as exclusive economic zones, territorial seas, and archipelagic waters. Reconciling the ‘natural’ regions with the ‘legal’ regions recognized by current international law, with a view toward effective ocean management, is a problem requiring a degree of international cooperation that may be difficult to achieve under some circumstances.

Dredge and fill activities typically face strict scrutiny today as their negative impacts have become more fully understood. When filling is allowed, it is most often for a public purpose, such as an expanded port facility, and the public retains ownership of the filled lands. A dramatic exception to that pattern, however, has emerged in Long Bay, in the harbor of St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, where 7·5 acres of filled land were created in 1986 for an undisclosed purpose and ownership transferred to a private corporation. The legal basis for that transfer, a 1913 grant from the colonial government of Denmark, was challenged unsuccessfully by both citizen groups and the territorial legislature. Those challenges are examined in this paper in an effort to determine why they failed, and how future conflicts between the legacy of colonialism and contemporary coastal management can be resolved in favor of the public interest.

Human activities in the coastal zone are often supported by a physical infrastructure which, in the case of improper understanding of the coastal system can have a dramatic effect on the coastline. This was the case in Kelantan State, Malaysia, where as part of the so-called Kemasin-Semerak Integrated Rural Development Project, river outlets were stabilized by training walls. Within months of the works implementation, serious erosion occurred, which endangered the seaworks and neighbouring fishing boat shelters and coastal communities. Delft Hydraulics was commissioned to study the cause of this erosion, taking into account both the autonomous development of the coast and the impact of the river training works, and to make recommendations for future coast erosion management of Kelantan State.

This paper describes the simulation exercises in Sea Use Planning and Management carried out at the World Maritime University, Malmö, Sweden. The objectives of the simulations are to reinforce what has been learned in lecture programmes, and to provide experience in the use of simulation as a planning technique. Exercise one deals with the development of a new port. Participants represent various concerned ministries, they make planning decisions and inputs on a sectorial basis regarding location, technical characteristics, environmental and social impacts. They are reconvened as interdisciplinary Task Forces and produce a final integrated plan.

Exercise two involves the planning and management of multiple activities in an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)—including the problems of shared fish stocks, cross boundary hydrocarbons, and a disputed zone with an opposite state. The procedure of progressing from sectorial to integrated approaches is again adopted, with the objective of achieving the net gains from sea uses within the concept of sustainable development.

The paper provides a management case study of tourism as a reasonable use of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It summarises the multiple-use management concept applied in the Marine Park, and discusses the Great Barrier Reef as a tourist attraction. It describes the general provisions of zoning and management that affect tourism, and the specific approach of the permit system which provides for case-by-case management and control of tourist programs and developments. It outlines the interaction of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park controls with other Commonwealth and Queensland environmental legislation, and describes the development of site management and strategic plans to provide guidance to permit applicants and delegates regarding possible developments and activities within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

The development of sea use management and planning in the North Sea is concerned with three main themes. First, the foundations of management are based upon technical management functions which include scientific and technological inputs and environmental and social assessment techniques. Upon these based general management functions including organisational aspects which can be regionally distinguished in terms of complexity of organisation, including sea areas adjacent to urban areas on the one hand, and remaining ‘rural’ sea areas on the other. The overall development of the system is likely to include increasing integration of current management functions, together with a contrast in use types and intensity between the ‘metropolitan’ southern North Sea on the one hand, and the rural central and northern regions on the other.