Largest Exclusive Economic Zone Research Articles

An investigation on the use algae-based material for the production of reusable bioplastic bags: A Mauritian case study

The Government of Mauritius has come up with new regulations in an attempt to ban the use of petroleum based plastics bags so as to protect the environment. Hence it is important to find substitute materials to achieve this goal set by the government. Interestingly though, Mauritius being an island with a large Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), there is an abundancy of seaweeds, which is an interesting avenue to explore. The unexploited seaweed in the waters surrounding Mauritius remains a remarkably potential raw material for the manufacture of an alternative to petro-plastics, especially polypropylene non-woven bags, in the form of reusable and fully biodegradable bioplastic bags. This research attempts to investigate the use of algae, mainly Gracilaria Salicornia and Ulva lactuca as a potential; raw material for the production of reusable bioplastic bags through Taguchi optimisation method for the culling of optimum constituent wt.%. For the preparation of the biofilm to be solution casted, cassava starch, algae powder, glycerol and acetic acid were selected as controllable factors. The Taguchi L9 orthogonal array experimental design plan was considered for carrying out the experiments. The responses analysed were the tensile strength, water absorption, biodegradation and water vapour permeability. A maximum tensile strength and degradation of 7.325 MPa and 91.32% respectively were achieved from Taguchi optimal conditions. A maximum water absorption and minimum water vapour permeability of 60.3 % and 3.0181 g/h.m2 respectively were evaluated from the experiments. Contribution of factors to the responses were determined through analysis of variance. Furthermore, regression models and contour plots were developed for predicting the best combination which was determined to be 8 % (w/v) starch, 3 % (w/v) algae, 1 % (w/v) glycerol and 8 % (w/v) acetic. An Ulva lactuca blend was experimented to act as substitute for cassava starch, achieving a tensile strength and water absorption of 3.578 MPa and 175.0 % respectively. Compared to other materials, used for bag production, available on the market, the mechanical properties of the developed algae-based material showed its potential as a replacement with some having much higher tensile strength confirming its successful usage.

The extent and protection of Australia’s deep sea

Context Australia has the third largest exclusive economic zone in the world, but little is known about its deepest parts because, historically, research has focussed on coast regions or in the top 1000 m. Aim We aim to identify the extent of Australia’s deep sea, the deepest locations in Australian waters, and investigate how much of Australia’s deep sea is located within marine parks. Methods We use altimetry-derived water depth to calculate the total area in 1000-m bins. Key results The total area of Australian waters, excluding Antarctic waters, is 8 914 134 km2, of which, 70.4% is deep sea greater than 1000 m and 48% is deeper than the 3000-m abyssal boundary. In total, 56% of Australian Marine Parks are deeper than 3000 m and 20 of 61 marine reserves include water deeper than 5000 m. Conclusions The Convention on Biological Diversity calls for marine protected areas globally to increase from 7.7 to 30% by 2030: Australia has already placed over 40% of its waters under protection. Despite this, there are no long-term programs monitoring the deep sea and Australia has not produced a globally significant amount of deep-sea science. Implications Herein lies opportunities for Australia to understand fully its largest habitat and become the global exemplar of deep-sea science and conservation.

Critical gaps in the protection of the second largest exclusive economic zone in the world

A healthy Ocean is critical for achieving sustainable development goals but the Ocean is threatened by multiple stressors. There is a global call to increase the coverage of marine protected areas (MPAs) from 10% to at least 30% by 2030. France, a major actor for marine conservation with the second largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world, with territories in all Ocean basins but the Arctic, aims at reaching the 30% by 2022, for which one third shall include a strong protection status. However, the strategy to reach this twofold target faces two challenges. First, while some standards exist to classify the levels of protection, France is currently using a case specific, loose approach to define strong protection. Second, there is no criteria that addresses the representativeness of the protection across French Ocean basins. Here, we assess the protection levels of the 524 French MPAs and their distribution across territories and habitats. While 33.7% of France’s waters are covered by an MPA, 12.5% of these areas do not impose regulations stronger inside than outside. Full and high levels of protection, the most effective for biodiversity conservation, represent only 1.6% of French waters and are unevenly distributed across Ocean basins and habitats, with 80.5% concentrated in a single territory. To fill this gap in protection for the second largest exclusive economic zone in the world, it is critical that France’s high ambition is both qualitatively and quantitatively deployed in each Ocean basin to protect our Ocean, its biodiversity and to sustain the livelihood of millions of people. SummaryCurrent efforts at protecting the second largest exclusive economic zone in the world are unevenly distributed and are missing entire parts of ecosystems and Ocean basins

Recommendations for Sustainable Cetacean-Based Tourism in French Territories: A Review on the Industry and Current Management Actions

Whale-watching activities provide important socioeconomic benefits for local communities and constitute powerful platform incentives for marine mammals' protection or more broadly marine environments. However, these activities can cause adverse effects on targeted populations, with considerable downside associated risks of injuries and fatality for whale watchers during inwater interactions. France with its overseas territories has the second largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ), in which more than half of existing cetacean species are encountered. In these territories, recreational and commercial whale watching, including swim-with cetacean activities, have recently developed. Yet few studies focused on these activities and their associated impacts across French territories, leading to an unclear assessment of the situation. To address this issue, we reviewed cetaceans' occurrence within the French EEZ, whale-watching industry, targeted species, local management of marine mammal-based tourism activities, and regulations in France mainland and some overseas territories (Reunion Island, Mayotte, and French Polynesia). Fortyeight species are encountered in the French EEZ, and 15 are targeted by whale-watching activities. A total of 185 operators, including 34% offering swim-with-cetaceans tours, offered trips in France and overseas in 2019. While several more or less restrictive regulations exist locally, our results indicate that French's national legal framework for marine mammals' protection remains inadequate and insufficient to cope with the recent development of this activity. As conservation biologists, managers, and stakeholders from these French territories, we cooperated to provide general guidelines for a sustainable development of whale watching at a national scale. We urge (1) to legally acknowledge and regulate whale-watching commercial activities; (2) to create a national legal framework regarding whale watching and swim-with marine mammals practices, while accounting for local distinctiveness and disparities across regions; (3) to conduct more research to evaluate local short- and long-term impacts on targeted marine mammal populations as well as the socioeconomic benefits; and (4) to reinforce synergetic relations between the different stakeholders.

Extending New Zealand’s Marine Shellfish Aquaculture Into Exposed Environments – Adapting to Modern Anthropogenic Challenges

New Zealand has a large exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of which the area between the 30 m and 50 m bathymetric zone offers the most prospects for shellfish production. Only 0.3% of this zone would be required to increase New Zealand’s shellfish production by 150 000 t. The Enabling Open Ocean Aquaculture Program, funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Busi-ness, Innovation and Employment, is a collaboration aiming to develop technologies that will enable the extension of aquaculture into New Zealand’s harsh and challenging open ocean conditions, and facilitate adaptation to the escalating effects of climate change in inner shore environments. New Zealand has started expanding aquaculture into exposed environments, allowing for farm expansion to meet increasing demand for aquaculture products but also enabling ventures into new aquatic products. Expansion into offshore developments is in di-rect response to mounting stakeholder interaction in inshore coastal areas. This document pre-sents a brief overview of the potential zones for open ocean aquaculture, the influence of cli-mate change, and two potential shellfish operational systems that may facilitate the expansion of shellfish aquaculture onto New Zealand’s exposed ocean sites.

Social media as a novel source of data on the impact of marine litter on megafauna: The Philippines as a case study

Marine litter is a global threat to marine biodiversity. However, there is a key knowledge gap on the impacts of marine litter in the Philippines – a country of high marine biodiversity and large exclusive economic zone. This gap is addressed here by using information shared on the internet by citizen scientists and conservation groups to assess the impacts of marine litter on megafauna. Facebook, presently the largest social media platform, was scanned for posts concerning the interaction between litter and marine species in the Philippines. Results showed thirty-two individuals from 17 species were affected by marine litter in the country. Furthermore, ingestion (61%) was the most frequent interaction reported. Mindanao was also identified as a hotspot for marine litter interactions. The study highlights the utility of social media in providing data to create an inventory of marine species adversely affected by litter and the spatial distribution of these interactions.

India’s fitful quest for seapower

ABSTRACTBuilding on several years of research, and many interviews of Indian naval officers and government officials, both serving and retired, this article aims to provide a deeper understanding of the context and ramifications of India's naval rise. In particular, it seeks to explain a troubling paradox: the relative neglect of the navy vis-à-vis the other services, and the seeming misalignment of New Delhi's military strategy with its maritime geography. Indeed, the country's enviable position at the heart of the Indian Ocean, along with its peninsular formation, large exclusive economic zone, and extensive coastlines, would seem to suggest a natural predisposition towards the exercise of naval power. In reality, however, India's navy since independence has consistently been the most poorly funded of its military services, and has frequently struggled to make do with limited resources. The core question this article endeavors to address is whether this trend will persist, or whether various factors will combine in order to provoke a gradual rebalancing of the nation's military strategy and force structure.

Sea Change: How Markets & Property Rights Could Transform the Fishing Industry

Global fish catches in the seas and oceans have stagnated since the mid-1990s. Because there are generally no established property rights in wild fish, fisheries are vulnerable to the ‘tragedy of the commons’. Trawler owners race to catch as many fish as possible before they are caught by competitors. While the short-term benefits of overfishing accrue to the individual trawler owners, the long-term costs in terms of reduced yields are shared. Governments have greatly exacerbated the problem of overfishing by subsidising the industry and undermining the economic feedback mechanisms that help to protect stocks. The European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has been particularly prone to this, with disastrous results. The British fishing industry, for example, has been in almost continuous decline in recent decades as stocks have fallen. Landings into UK ports of the more valuable demersal fish such as cod have plummeted by around 80% since 1970. The UK shares fishing grounds with other member states and has been allocated a relatively small share of EU quotas. Under the CFP, a high proportion of fish caught have been thrown back dead into the sea. Brexit will enable the UK to withdraw from the CFP and adopt a more efficient approach within its large Exclusive Economic Zone, which stretches up to 200 nautical miles from the coast. This has the potential both to increase catches and eliminate subsidies from taxpayers. Policy options include facilitating community-based management in some coastal fisheries and introducing Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) for other areas. Many local communities around the world have evolved successful approaches to managing coastal fisheries without the need for government intervention. They set their own rules on who has access to the resource, how it can be fished and what sanctions will be imposed if violations occur. Such management models have typically been highly effective at conserving stocks and maintaining yields in the long term, in marked contrast to the failure so often observed under state regulation. Property-rights-based systems, such as Individual Transferable Quotas, alter incentives in ways that are favourable to conservation and stewardship, because overfishing reduces the value of the quotas owned by fishermen. Where they have been introduced, ITQs have improved efficiency by reducing excessive fishing effort and over-capitalisation. Although the success or failure of any policy approach will be affected by the characteristics of the fishery to which it is applied, there are general lessons. An economically rational strategy for UK waters post-Brexit, and other fisheries currently subject to mismanagement, will necessarily involve phasing out government subsidies in all their forms and better aligning incentives with the long-term preservation of stocks.

Settling of the maritime boundaries of the United States: Cost of settlement and the benefits of legal certainty

Abstract 1 The United States has the largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world by virtue of its long coastlines and multiple dependencies in the Caribbean and the Pacific Oceans. As a result it shares 27 maritime boundaries with 20 different states and dependencies. This paper analyzes how the United States settled 10 contested maritime boundaries between 1977 and until 1997, but has since then left 17 unresolved maritime boundaries. It advances the argument that in this area of relatively low salience for the United States' foreign policy, political and economic transaction costs are key variables in explaining the pattern of settlement.

How sustainable is sustainable marine spatial planning? Part II – The Portuguese experience

With one of Europe׳s largest exclusive economic zones, Portugal has a paramount role in the implementation of EU maritime policies. In the Portuguese context, ocean planning and management are presently undergoing major advances. This paper analyzes and discusses the present state of affairs regarding the Portuguese marine spatial planning (MSP) process, comprising: (1) an update on the status of MSP in Portugal; (2) an analysis on how sustainability concepts are to be implemented in the Portuguese MSP process and (3) a discussion on major challenges to Portuguese MSP long-term sustainability. The Portuguese MSP process can be divided in two phases: development of the “Plano de Ordenamento do Espaço Marítimo” (POEM) – initially intended to be the first Portuguese “marine spatial plan” but then published as a “study”; and development of the Law Proposal 133/XII on marine planning and management – soon to be approved. A key question for the long-term adequacy of Portuguese MSP is how is it addressing environmental sustainability: is it relying on soft or hard sustainability concepts? Is it prioritizing the achievement of good environmental status (GES) or blue growth? In both cases (POEM and Law Proposal), soft sustainability seems to be the underlying principle, because although the ecosystem approach is recognized as fundamental, environmental quality seems to come second when set against economic goals.

The European Marine Strategy: Contribution and challenges from a Portuguese perspective

Abstract The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is considered to be the environmental pillar of the EU Integrated Maritime Policy, establishing a framework within which member states must take the necessary measures to achieve, or maintain, good environmental status in their marine waters. This study presents Portugal's contributions to the Directive development, describes the Portuguese institutional framework within the MSFD and, finally, highlights the opportunities and threats to the success of the MSFD implementation in Portugal. The latter entails an analysis of the Directive's long term adequacy in its link to (1) marine spatial planning, (2) climate change and (3) the economic/financial crisis. With one of Europe's largest exclusive economic zones. Portugal's interest in the MSFD is paramount. Efforts towards the approval of the final document were assured during the Portuguese presidency of the European Council of Ministers, in 2007, while chairing a thorough discussion between the Council and the European Parliament. In the Portuguese context, the Directive implementation will rely on the Water Institute as the authoritative entity, which will be responsible for coordinating all necessary efforts at the national level. The success of such process depends on a close cooperation among the institutions involved as well as on how approved measures account for long term issues. In addition, the MSFD implementation must be built on lessons learned within the Water Framework Directive, in order to be successful. Although it poses a methodological challenge to Portugal, the MSFD implementation is expected to contribute significantly to the improvement of coastal/marine conservation and management at the national level.

Exploring New Zealand's marine territory

Around the end of the twentieth century, awareness grew that, in addition to the Taranaki Basin, other unexplored basins in New Zealand’s large exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and extended continental shelf (ECS) may contain petroleum. GNS Science initiated a program to assess the prospectivity of more than 1 million square kilometres of sedimentary basins in New Zealand’s marine territories. The first project in 2001 acquired, with TGS-NOPEC, a 6,200 km reconnaissance 2D seismic survey in deep-water Taranaki. This showed a large Late Cretaceous delta built out into a northwest-trending basin above a thick succession of older rocks. Many deltas around the world are petroleum provinces and the new data showed that the deep-water part of Taranaki Basin may also be prospective. Since the 2001 survey a further 9,000 km of infill 2D seismic data has been acquired and exploration continues. The New Zealand government recognised the potential of its frontier basins and, in 2005 Crown Minerals acquired a 2D survey in the East Coast Basin, North Island. This was followed by surveys in the Great South, Raukumara and Reinga basins. Petroleum Exploration Permits were awarded in most of these and licence rounds in the Northland/Reinga Basin closed recently. New data have since been acquired from the Pegasus, Great South and Canterbury basins. The New Zealand government, through Crown Minerals, funds all or part of a survey. GNS Science interprets the new data set and the data along with reports are packaged for free dissemination prior to a licensing round. The strategy has worked well, as indicated by the entry of ExxonMobil, OMV and Petrobras into New Zealand. Anadarko, another new entry, farmed into the previously licensed Canterbury and deep-water Taranaki basins. One of the main results of the surveys has been to show that geology and prospectivity of New Zealand’s frontier basins may be similar to eastern Australia, as older apparently unmetamophosed successions are preserved. By extrapolating from the results in the Taranaki Basin, ultimate prospectivity is likely to be a resource of some tens of billions of barrels of oil equivalent. New Zealand’s largely submerged continent may yield continent-sized resources.

Private rights, public benefits: Industry-driven seabed protection

New Zealand has a large exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that contains a variety of marine habitats and commercially-important species. The commercial fishing industry operating within New Zealand's EEZ is of significant value to the economy and fisheries resources are managed through the extensive use of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs). One of the benefits of ITQs has been to better align some of the private incentives of quota owners with the public interest. These incentives contributed to an initiative proposed by the fishing industry to close large areas of New Zealand's EEZ to protect the seabed from trawling. These closed areas are termed benthic protection areas (BPAs) and protect the benthic biodiversity of about 1.1 million square kilometres of seabed—approximately 30% of New Zealand's EEZ. A significant proportion of New Zealand's known seamounts and active hydrothermal vents are protected by these closed areas. We describe and discuss the criteria used to select BPAs and some of the criticism of this marine protection initiative. We argue that the assignment of strong property rights in fishing resources was an important precondition to an industry initiative that has a significant public benefit. Where private and public interests are well aligned, government can adopt an enabling and facilitation role, ceding direct control of processes in order to get the results the align with the public interest.

Offshore Aquaculture Legislation

![Figure][1] Fish farming is flourishing along coastlines in many countries. But the United States is turning instead to the open ocean for aquaculture expansion. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a unit within the U.S. Department of Commerce, justifies this move on several grounds: America's seafood appetite continues to grow, ocean waters are overfished, and marine fish farming near the shore is limited by state regulations. As a result, the United States faces a large and growing seafood deficit, now around $8 billion annually. With technology such as submersible cages with robotic surveillance becoming available for open-ocean farming, why not move aquaculture into the high seas? After all, the United States has the largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world, amounting to roughly 1.5 times the landmass of the lower 48 states. Facilitating aquaculture development in federal waters of the EEZ (3 to 200 miles offshore) could result in substantial commercial benefits. But at what cost to sustainable fisheries, wild fish populations, and marine ecosystems remain sticky questions for legislation. On 8 June 2005, Commerce Committee Co-Chairmen Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) introduced the National Offshore Aquaculture Act of 2005 (S. 1195). This bill, crafted by NOAA, establishes a permitting process for offshore aquaculture development within the federal waters of the EEZ and encourages private investment in aquaculture operations, demonstrations, and research. It gives the Secretary of Commerce the authority and broad discretion to promote offshore aquaculture—in consultation with other relevant federal agencies, but without firm environmental requirements apart from existing laws. Just how much NOAA should be promoting versus overseeing aquaculture development is debatable, particularly because many of the needed environmental safeguards are missing. Without a clear legal standard for environmental and resource protection within the bill, marine fisheries and ecosystems are vulnerable to further decline. Ample evidence from near-shore systems indicates major environmental risks from fish farming: The escape of farmed fish from ocean cages can have detrimental effects on wild fish populations through competition and interbreeding, parasites and diseases can spread from farmed to wild fish, there is damaging nutrient and chemical effluent discharge from farms, and the use of wild pelagic fish for feed can deplete the low end of the marine food web in certain locations. Species targeted for offshore systems, such as halibut and cod, are also caught in the wild, so commercial fishing interests worry about the economic as well as ecological consequences. Most existing open-ocean systems are experimental. They experience predator attacks, escapes, and high use of wild fish for feed, and the full ecological impact of commercial-scale offshore aquaculture remains unknown. ![Figure][1] CREDIT: MICHAEL POLE/CORBIS Since the introduction of S. 1195, environmental and fishing groups have worked hard to stop the legislation. The bill was roundly criticized before a Senate committee in June 2006 and has yet to reach the House. In the likely event that S. 1195 resurfaces in the next legislative session, stakeholders and the public should be attentive to three points. First, states have an important role to play. For example, California's recent Sustainable Oceans Act (SB 201) sets high environmental standards for marine finfish production in state waters and could help shape national legislation. An amendment to S. 1195 also permits states to opt out of aquaculture development in federal waters off their shores. Second, industry leaders whose business strategy strongly incorporates environmental and social stewardship should contribute to the bill's revision. Positive participation by the industry would help move the legislative process forward. Finally, the revised legislation must permit firms operating in U.S. federal waters to be internationally competitive. This will only happen if the bill is crafted in an international context, with sound environmental standards adopted in all countries with marine aquaculture, whether near shore or offshore. Commerce is eyeing the global picture. So too should the global environmental community. [1]: pending:yes

The exclusive economic zone and the United States insular areas: A case for shared sovereignty

The article analyzes the legal and practical effects of the 1983 Proclamation of the United States Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act on the large EEZs surrounding five insular areas of the United States: Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Application of the Magnuson Act has impeded development and conservation of insular fisheries. Insular governments oppose imposition of federal resource authority in the insular EEZ. Federal authority in the EEZ is limited by the proclamation and by federal and international law. While the federal government has sovereign interests in the insular areas, insular citizens who are not vested with full political rights and equal representation in the national government properly retain the proprietary and beneficial interests in the resources of the insular EEZ. A model for sharing sovereignty in the insular EEZ is proposed.

Licensing distant-water tuna fleets in Papua New Guinea

Whe Proclamation was approved by Papua New Guinea's parliament and subsequently given effect by the country's Governor-General when he signed the Offshore Seas Proclamation (1978). By proclamation, Papua New Guinea declared its 200-mile Declared Fisheries Zone (DFZ) in March 1978.1 Papua New Guinea's DFZ, covering 2.3 million square kilometres (kin 2) of the western Pacific Ocean, is the third largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Pacific islands region after Polynesia (5.0 million km 2) and Kiribati (3.6 million km2). Papua New Guinea's DFZ harbours rich and proven tuna fishing grounds that are exploited by domestic and distant-water fleets. Japanese distant-water tuna fleets have fished in the area covered by Papua New Guinea's DFZ since the end of the second world war, and more recently, distant-water fleets of other flag states have joined operations. Papua New Guinea's domestic tuna fleet has operated since 1970. On the basis of biological research undertaken by the government of Papua New Guinea in the early 1970s and together with the more recent results of the Skipjack Survey and Assessment Program conducted by the South Pacific Commission, it is estimated that the country's potential annual yield of tuna from its DFZ significantly exceeds the quantity of tuna currently being harvested. The combined quantities of tuna harvested by foreign fishing vessels (FFVs) and the domestic tuna fleet in Papua New Guinea's DFZ have consistently exceeded 100 000 tonnes per annum since 1974. Given the productivity of the DFZ, the capacity of the world tuna market to absorb production and the Papua New Guinea government's willingness to license FFVs to fish for tuna in its waters, it is expected, at least in the medium term, that the total quantity of tuna landed annually in the DFZ will remain at around established levels. The article commences with a brief description of the exploitation of Papua New Guinea's tuna resources by domestic and distant-water fishing nation fleets. This is followed by an explanation of Papua New Guinea's rationale for licensing distant-water vessels in its DFZ as well as an outline of the country's existing, past and proposed access agreements. The basis for determining access fees payments is explained and terms and conditions of access discussed. Revenue received by Papua New Guinea from licensing distant-water fishing tuna fleets is presented for 1980, 1982 and 1984 together with other data showing the relative importance of revenue earned. Administration and surveillance

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: some implications for Libya

AbstractThe 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea will shape worldwide maritime management and offshore jurisdiction for generations to come. Libya will gain substantially from the new convention notably in respect of a 12 nautical mile territorial waters, and the acquisition of one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones in the Mediterranean. The known resources of this zone are not abundant, though some useful oilfields have been found. Several of Libya's offshore boundaries remain to be fixed, and Libya's claim to the Gulf of Surt as ‘historic waters’ creates some uncertainty. An upsurge in Libyan offshore activity, including conservation activities, is likely in the future.