Marine Environmental Policy Research Articles

Importance of integrating mixoplankton into marine ecosystem policy and management-Examples from the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Marine plankton capable of photosynthesis and predation ("mixoplankton") comprise up to 50% of protist plankton and include many harmful species. However, marine environmental management policies, including the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the USEPA, assume a strict dichotomy between autotrophic phytoplankton and heterotrophic zooplankton. Mixoplankton often differ significantly from these two categories in their response to environmental pressures and affect the marine environment in ways we are only beginning to understand. While the management policies may conceptually provide scope for incorporating mixoplankton, such action is rarely implemented. We suggest that the effectiveness of monitoring and management programs could benefit from explicit implementations regarding the ecological roles and impact of mixoplankton. Taking the MSFD as an example of marine management guidelines, we propose appropriate methods to explicitly include mixoplankton in monitoring and marine management. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:1366-1383. © 2024 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Are Differing Viewpoints Amongst Key Actors Influencing Implementation of Key Eu Marine Environmental Policies? Case Of Strictly Protected Areas

The transboundary nature of marine ecosystems and their more difficult accessibility create challenges for the conceptualisation of effective marine conservation, because of the compleity of the marine functioning and often unclear competences. Marine conservation thus often relies on (international) policies. The EU environmental policies are known for their high ambition levels. However, their implementation has been subpar so far. This study investigates the viewpoints of marine nature, wilderness, and strict protection in the EU seas and whether those help eplain why the implementation of EU marine environmental policies has been incoherent and uncoordinated so far. The viewpoints and nature imaginaries were investigated amongst key actors in policy implementation from national to the EU and Regional Sea Conventions levels, using policy analysis, diagramming, and Living Q workshops. The results show a variety of divergent viewpoints that frame marine issues in different ways, resulting in different interpretations of common policies and definitions, as well as a variety of policy implementation priorities. The variety of different values associated with marine nature, wilderness, and the role of EU policies is thus likely to influence the way common EU policies will be implemented in the future and by etension their effectiveness.

Undermining by Mining? Deep Seabed Mining in Light of International Marine Environmental Law

Some forty years ago, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) created an unusual regime for states to collectively manage common natural resources on the international seabed beyond national jurisdiction (known as “the Area”) through the International Seabed Authority (ISA). In the intervening years, scientists have increasingly been warning about the serious environmental risks of mining seabed minerals. At this pivotal point in time, when states are negotiating whether or not to allow seabed mining, this essay explores the risk of undermining by mining, that is, contravening international marine environmental law and the obligations and responsibilities of states thereunder by allowing commercial mining activities to commence. We argue that allowing seabed mining in the Area at this juncture, when so much about the deep ocean remains unknown, would risk frustrating a host of measures, achievements, and progress to enhance marine environmental protection, particularly in areas beyond national jurisdiction. We begin with an overview of the ISA and its work to date, before discussing potential interactions between seabed mining and marine environmental law and policies, with a particular focus on the new ocean biodiversity agreement. We conclude by urging states to take cognizance of their overarching duty to protect and preserve the marine environment and ensure that all decisions taken with respect to seabed mining are consistent with their obligations and responsibilities under international law.

PRESERVATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL STATE OF THE MARINE COASTAL ZONE OF UKRAINE AS A STRATEGIC GOAL OF BLUE GROWTH

Topicality. Today, the issue of protection and preservation of the marine coastal zone is one of the most important directions in the legislative and scientific sectors of the World, in particular the European Union. Coastal ecosystems are known to be among the most productive on Earth. They provide essential ecosystem services such as coastal protection from storms, fish feeding grounds and others. The convincing relevance and absolute scientific and practical significance of these issues is confirmed by the implementation of EU directives and other regulations in the legislation of Ukraine. The implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/ can serve as one example. On the basis of which the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of October 11, 2021 No. 1240-р approved the Marine Environmental Protection Strategy of Ukraine. In this strategy, special attention is paid to the conservation and restoration of the ecological state of coastal protective strips and the identification of the most dangerous pollutants. Also, further development and approval of a list of measures that should be included, in particular, in the plans for integrated management of the coastal territories of the Azov and Black Seas. Significantly emphasizes the relevance and the fact that, with the support of the European Commission, experts from various sectors of the Black Sea countries are developing conceptual documents. One such document is the Burgas Vision Paper. This document defines the shared vision of the experts and the tasks for approaching the "Blue Growth Initiative for Research and Innovation in the Black Sea".Aim and tasks. The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors of preserving the ecological state of the marine coastal zone as a component of the Marine Environmental Strategy of Ukraine and blue growth. The aim is decomposed into the following main tasks: to determine the general scientific provisions and concepts of the coastal strip and zone, their integrated management, to analyze the strategic aims and priority tasks of the state environmental protection policy in accordance with the concept of blue growth.Materials and Methods. The initial information for the research was the legislative acts in the field of ecology of the European Union and Ukraine, domestic and foreign scientific materials in the direction of blue growth, coastal strips of the seas of Ukraine and integrated coastal zone management. The work used the dialectical method of scientific knowledge, logical analysis of the initial information.Research results. The paper summarizes the identified main scientific provisions and concepts of the coastal protection strip and coastal zone and their integrated management. Based on the conceptual document (Burgas Vision Paper), the general directions of the Black Sea Strategic Research and Innovation Program are described, which is aimed at achieving and maintaining a productive, healthy, resilient, sustainable, and better-valued Black Sea by 2030. An analysis of the strategic goals and priority objectives of the Marine Environmental Strategy of Ukraine was carried out and their relationship to the coastal strip of the sea was highlighted.Conclusion. This paper analyzes the factors of preserving the ecological state of the marine coastal zone as a component of the Marine Environmental Strategy of Ukraine and blue growth. The creation by the European Union of legislative acts, international projects aimed at protecting the environment, monitoring the characteristics of natural resources, the development of the "Blue Economy" in European countries and, in particular, in the Black Sea region is a significant basis for improving the ecological condition of the coastal zone of the seas of Ukraine. With the support of the European Commission, experts from various sectors of the Black Sea countries are developing concept documents. These documents define the joint vision of the experts and the tasks for approaching the "Blue Growth Initiative for Research and Innovation in the Black Sea". Based on the analysis of the priority objectives of all the Strategic goals of the marine environmental policy of Ukraine, it can be stated that almost all of them are directly or indirectly related to the coastal strips of the seas of Ukraine. This means that the research of the coastal strip of the seas of Ukraine has a convincing relevance and indisputable scientific and practical significance of research, in particular, both at the national and regional levels. Described by the mechanisms for achieving the strategic goals of the Marine Environmental Strategy of Ukraine, the development, improvement, and assimilation of which will finally give grounds to regulate the principles of integrated coastal strip management at the legislative level. Also, which is no less important, it will significantly improve the awareness of the population regarding the rational use of coastal natural resources.

Evaluation and obstacle factors of high-quality development in coastal cities along the Yangtze River

In order to achieve marine environmental protection and sustainable development in the coastal regions along the Yangtze River, the Chinese government has formulated the “Implementation Plan for the Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB)". High-quality urban development (HQUD) aims to achieve economic, social, and environmental benefits, making it an extension and reinforcement of the concept of sustainable development. This study employs this plan as a point of reference to construct an indicator framework for appraising HQUD. The system is designed based on a sustainability perspective, incorporating four dimensions, namely environment, circulation, economy, and society. Based on data collected from 105 cities in the YREB between 2003 and 2020, this study applies various methods including kernel density estimation, Dagum Gini coefficient, Markov chain analysis, Moran's I index, spatial beta convergence, and barrier models to examine the spatiotemporal evolution dynamics associated with HQUD trends in the region. The findings indicate that the overall level of HQUD experiences some fluctuations, but exhibits a net upward trend. However, cities belonging to different quality levels of development typically remain in their respective levels, with few jumping to higher levels. Next, the overall difference in HQUD originates from inter-regional differences and exhibits positive spatial aggregation characteristics. Further, the region's HQUD exhibits spatial convergence. Finally, the low level of social development remains an important issue that should be resolved urgently. Overall, this study reveals the current state of the Yangtze River coastal regions, offering theoretical and practical foundations for marine environmental protection and government policy formulation.

A dataset of the visible light remote sensing images for offshore maritime targets in Sanduao from 2019 to 2021

The intelligent detection of offshore maritime targets using computer vision technology can provide a scientific basis for marine administrative management, marine environmental supervision and management as well as the formulation of marine environmental protection policies, providing a powerful environmental information reference for the steady development of the economy. The dataset includes the data collected from Sanduao Harbor in the southeast of Ningde City, Fujian Province, China, with Google Earth serving as the primary data source and a time span from 2019 to 2021. This dataset comprises 1,761 visible light remote sensing images acquired under different seasons, backgrounds and illumination conditions, and corresponding horizontal object detection labels, rotational object detection labels and semantic segmentation labels, covering three types of offshore maritime targets, namely ships, fish row cage culture areas, and raft culture areas. After screening and correction, it can meet the current mainstream deep learning model training needs. This dataset can provide basic data for the semantic segmentation, horizontal object detection, rotational object detection and other research fields of offshore maritime target images.

Government environmental regulation strategy for new pollutants control in mariculture

The control of new pollutants in mariculture is a marine environmental policy direction. This paper constructs a three-party evolutionary game model containing fishermen, sales platforms and government to analyze government environmental regulation strategy for new pollutants in mariculture, then conduct numerical simulations based on survey data. The research conclusions are as follows. (1) As the probability of government regulation on mariculture's new pollutants increases, the probability of fishermen engaging in green mariculture and the platform purchasing green mariculture products both increases. (2) There is a role boundary of government mariculture green subsidies. As the total amount of mariculture green subsidies increases beyond a certain amount, its marginal incentive effect diminishes and the government will gradually stop providing mariculture green subsidies. (3) Government penalties can promote the control of new pollutants in mariculture. With the increase of penalties for new pollutants in mariculture, fishermen will gradually choose green farming and sales platforms will purchase green mariculture products. The conclusions will provide theoretical and practical guidelines for new pollutants control and government regulatory strategy in mariculture.

Does environmental regulation improve marine carbon efficiency? The role of marine industrial structure

With the continuous increase of marine development, intensive economic activities have reduced the marine carbon efficiency and seriously damaged the marine ecological environment, which needs reasonable environmental regulations to guide. This study aims to examine the interactions between marine environmental regulation and carbon efficiency to achieve the goal of carbon emission reduction for the sustainability of marine ecosystem. This study empirically analyzes the heterogeneous effects and mediating effects of China's marine environmental policies on marine carbon efficiency using the mediating effects model and generalized moments estimation. The results show that there is a “U” shaped relationship between marine environmental regulation and marine carbon efficiency in China, marine environmental regulation can indirectly promote marine carbon efficiency through the transmission mechanism of resource allocation efficiency and structural optimization of marine industries. In addition, China's marine environmental regulation policies have regional heterogeneous effects on marine carbon efficiency. This study provides a new perspective for optimizing marine carbon efficiency and sustainable development of marine ecosystem.

Unifying approaches to Functional Marine Connectivity for improved marine resource management: the European SEA-UNICORN COST Action

Truly sustainable development in a human-altered, fragmented marine environment subject to unprecedented climate change, demands informed planning strategies in order to be successful. Beyond a simple understanding of the distribution of marine species, data describing how variations in spatio-temporal dynamics impact ecosystem functioning and the evolution of species are required. Marine Functional Connectivity (MFC) characterizes the flows of matter, genes and energy produced by organism movements and migrations across the seascape. As such, MFC determines the ecological and evolutionary interdependency of populations, and ultimately the fate of species and ecosystems. Gathering effective MFC knowledge can therefore improve predictions of the impacts of environmental change and help to refine management and conservation strategies for the seas and oceans. Gathering these data are challenging however, as access to, and survey of marine ecosystems still presents significant challenge. Over 50 European institutions currently investigate aspects of MFC using complementary methods across multiple research fields, to understand the ecology and evolution of marine species. The aim of SEA-UNICORN, a COST Action supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), is to bring together this research effort, unite the multiple approaches to MFC, and to integrate these under a common conceptual and analytical framework. The consortium brings together a diverse group of scientists to collate existing MFC data, to identify knowledge gaps, to enhance complementarity among disciplines, and to devise common approaches to MFC. SEA-UNICORN will promote co-working between connectivity practitioners and ecosystem modelers to facilitate the incorporation of MFC data into the predictive models used to identify marine conservation priorities. Ultimately, SEA-UNICORN will forge strong forward-working links between scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders to facilitate the integration of MFC knowledge into decision support tools for marine management and environmental policies.

An evolutionary game study of environmental regulation strategies for marine ecological governance in China

The choice of environmental regulation strategies for marine ecological pollution governance is vital for China’s promotion of collaborative marine ecological management. First, based on the assumption of limited rationality, we established a three-party evolutionary game model of China’s central government, local governments, and marine enterprises from the perspective of environmental policy to explore the dynamic evolution process of the game strategies of the three participants and the stability of the system equilibrium point. Second, we used numerical simulations to investigate how the incentive- and penalty-based policies of central and local governments have different effects on local governments and marine enterprises, respectively. Finally, we introduced a reputation loss model of public participation to explore the game strategy choices of the three parties under public participation. The finding reveal that (1) Local governments are more sensitive to the central government’s punishment policies than marine enterprises are. (2) Increasing the punishment of local governments on enterprises can simultaneously enhance the willingness of enterprises to govern and the willingness of local governments to implement. Moreover, the local governments policy of punishing enterprises was more direct and effective than that of the central government. (3) Although local governments subsidies for marine enterprises can increase their probability of governing marine ecology, they can also decrease local governments' willingness to implement. Finally, (4) Public participation can quickly promote the active governance of marine enterprises. Accordingly, the suggestions are proposed to maintain China's marine ecological security, e.g., the central government should focus on urging local governments to strictly implement marine environmental protection policies; local governments should take the lead in supervising and guiding marine enterprises; and all levels of government need to take measures to promote public participation in marine ecological governance.

Underwater Anthropogenic Noise Pollution Assessment in Shallow Waters on the South-Eastern Coast of Spain

Anthropogenic noise is a growing threat to marine life due to the incrementation of human activity in the marine environment. In Europe, the Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council was published with the aim of establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy. The directive introduces underwater acoustic energy, as detailed in Descriptor 11, and stipulates that the member states should set the threshold levels at which a good environmental status can be achieved by means of long-term monitoring campaigns. This research presents the results of a long-term underwater noise monitoring campaign with a duration of three years in the port of Cartagena located on the south-eastern coast of Spain, focusing on the monthly and annual variation patterns of low-frequency continuous noise. The acquired data are classified according to the source of the acoustic noise into shipping, other anthropogenic, and natural noise measurements. These three groups of measurements are processed in order to obtain one-third octave band levels centered at 63 and 125 Hz, as well as the overall bandwidth of unweighted Sound Pressure Level (SPL). The analysis of the measurements shows an increase in the annual average overall band of 4 and 3 dB of the natural and shipping noise, respectively, from 2013 to 2015. This monitoring campaign provides accurate acoustic values to establish threshold levels to achieve good environmental status and recommendations to conduct monitoring programs and regulations to control underwater noise pollution.

LSMPA Sovereignties in New Caledonia and French Polynesia: Territorialities, Alliances and Powers in Oceania

ABSTRACTOver the last decades, the establishment of large‐scale marine protected areas (LSMPA) in the Pacific Ocean has profoundly transformed the region's political geography. Pacific LSMPAs have played a striking role in converting Small Island Developing States (SIDS) into Large Ocean Island States (LOIS), generating a significant shift in regional and international politics. This paper is a new exploration of the ongoing political construction of the Ocean, at multiple scales and through different forms. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, an anthropological approach is used to investigate governance processes involving multiple actors shaping marine environmental policies in New Caledonia and French Polynesia, two French overseas territories. This research interrogates how territorial dynamics and sovereignty issues in the francophone Pacific are being driven and reshaped by the emergence of LSMPAs and offers an overview of current structural changes in Oceania.

Unifying approaches to Functional Marine Connectivity for improved marine resource management: the European SEA-UNICORN COST Action

Truly sustainable development in a human-altered, fragmented marine environment subject to unprecedented climate change, demands informed planning strategies in order to be successful. Beyond a simple understanding of the distribution of marine species, data describing how variations in spatio-temporal dynamics impact ecosystem functioning and the evolution of species are required. Marine Functional Connectivity (MFC) characterizes the flows of matter, genes and energy produced by organism movements and migrations across the seascape. As such, MFC determines the ecological and evolutionary interdependency of populations, and ultimately the fate of species and ecosystems. Gathering effective MFC knowledge can therefore improve predictions of the impacts of environmental change and help to refine management and conservation strategies for the seas and oceans. Gathering these data are challenging however, as access to, and survey of marine ecosystems still presents significant challenge. Over 50 European institutions currently investigate aspects of MFC using complementary methods across multiple research fields, to understand the ecology and evolution of marine species. The aim of SEA-UNICORN, a COST Action within the European Union Horizon 2020 framework programme, is to bring together this research effort, unite the multiple approaches to MFC, and to integrate these under a common conceptual and analytical framework. The consortium brings together a diverse group of scientists to collate existing MFC data, to identify knowledge gaps, to enhance complementarity among disciplines, and to devise common approaches to MFC. SEA-UNICORN will promote co-working between connectivity practitioners and ecosystem modelers to facilitate the incorporation of MFC data into the predictive models used to identify marine conservation priorities. Ultimately, SEA-UNICORN will forge strong forward-working links between scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders to facilitate the integration of MFC knowledge into decision support tools for marine management and environmental policies.

Has Technological Progress Contributed to the Bias of Green Output in China’s Marine Economy?

At present, the destruction of the marine ecological environment and the imbalance of economic structure have put forward urgent requirements for the green development of the marine economy. Based on the input and output data of China’s coastal provinces from 2006 to 2018, the RDM (range directional model) direction distance function was used to measure the output bias technology progress (OBTC) index of each region, and its influence on China’s marine economy green total factor productivity (GTFP) was judged accordingly. Furthermore, the rationality of the current OBTC index was studied. The results show that there is obvious output-biased technological progress in China’s marine economy, and it has led to the improvement of the GTFP. Although most coastal areas still tend to pursue the improvement of the total output value of the marine economy at the expense of environmental damage, the green bias of China’s marine economy has improved significantly since 2015, driven by relevant marine environmental protection policies. From the perspective of different areas, the imbalance of regional development in the process of China’s marine economic development is significant. The green bias of the marine economy is highest in the East China Sea area and lowest in the Bohai rim area. However, the coordination between the development of the green marine economy and environmental protection in the South China Sea area needs to be improved.

The Environment Bill’s policy statement on environmental principles: A golden opportunity for a principled framework for the sustainable management of UK waters

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs recently ran a consultation inviting expert input to determine how United Kingdom (UK) policymakers would be guided by five internationally recognised environmental principles when making policy affecting the environment. The principles are listed in a draft of the Policy Statement on Environmental Principles, a ground-breaking novelty of the Environment Bill – which recently passed through the UK Parliament. This article comments on this promising development with a focus on its implications for the development and implementation of policies for the protection of the marine environment. It advances that, while there is a lot of promise in the Bill creating a legally binding duty on Ministers across Whitehall to have due regard to the Statement while developing high-level strategic policies around marine environmental protection, it seems to exclude local authorities who are in charge of developing Marine Plans within the existing UK marine planning framework. This omission is problematic as it fails to recognise the crucial role which these authorities play in the actual delivery of nationally-developed high-level marine environmental protection policies and consequently weakens Her Majesty’s Government’s status as a global leader in this space.

Retraction Note: Marine biological characteristics and environmental legal policy optimization based on heterogeneous computing environment

Retraction Note: Marine biological characteristics and environmental legal policy optimization based on heterogeneous computing environment

Optimal strategies for stakeholders of Fukushima nuclear waste water discharge in Japan

The Japanese government intends to discharge radioactive nuclear waste water from the Fukushima nuclear reactor into the Pacific Ocean, which will cause irreversible and catastrophic ocean ecological pollution. In response to this irresponsible practice, there are strong domestic and international objections. However, the Japanese government's decision to discharge has not been changed. This study uses evolutionary game theory to construct a game model of the optimal strategic behavior of the Japanese government, stakeholder countries, and the domestic public in the proposed nuclear waste water discharge and explores the stable equilibrium point of the strategy combination by analyzing the interests of the three decision makers. The results are shown as follows: first, the participation of stakeholder countries will prevent the Japanese government from violating the marine environmental policy. This will ensure a safe resolution of the nuclear waste water incident in Japan. Second, the participation of the Japanese public can serve as a synergistic regulation. However, there is also a possibility of a free-rider phenomenon. Third, the strategy choice of the Japanese government is mainly related to factors such as the cost of nuclear waste water treatment devices and the storage cost of nuclear waste water. Lastly, relevant countermeasures and recommendations are put forward to promote effective monitoring by stakeholder countries and domestic people. It also promotes the Japanese government to abide by the marine environmental policy. Studying the strategic choices of stakeholders can influence recommendations for the formulation of international marine environmental policies under the current situation.

Port Environmental Quality or Economic Growth? Their Relevance and Government Preference in Developing Countries

In the past few years, the marine ecosystem has been a cheap resource in developing countries in the process of pursuing short-term vested interests. Therefore, high economic development of the developing countries is at a huge environmental cost. Nowadays, environmental protection is becoming a global concern. In this background, the government of the developing countries begins to formulate reasonable marine economic and environmental policies to find a balance between rapid economic development and marine environmental protection. In this contribution, a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model (DSGE) is constructed with the environmental constraints, and Bayesian estimation is used to calibrate the main parameters. Next, the model is employed to analyze the effects of government and consumer environmental preferences on macroeconomic variables, environmental quality, and consumer and government utility. Results show that the government’s preference for environmental quality is positively related to port environmental quality and negatively related to output, capital stock, and consumption. An enhancement of the environmental quality preference of the target audience can realize balanced development of economic growth and port environmental quality. The findings are conducive to coordinating the relationship between economic development and environmental protection and achieving sustainable development of the port.

Can environmental regulation promote urban innovation in the underdeveloped coastal regions of western China?

The Porter hypothesis states that environmental regulation can promote innovation. China faces serious environmental pressure and demand for innovation, and has a goal of becoming one of the most innovative countries by 2035. Due to China's vast territory and uneven development, realizing this goal will depend on both the economically developed coastal cities in the east, and the influence of underdeveloped coastal cities in the west. Given this context, this study investigates the causal relationship between environmental regulation and innovation in underdeveloped coastal cities, using the synthetic control method. The empirical analysis results show that environmental regulation has promoted innovation in underdeveloped coastal regions in western China, and the Porter hypothesis is verified to apply in the underdeveloped areas of developing countries. The research indicates there are certain differences among underdeveloped coastal cities; as such, local conditions should drive specific environmental regulation policies, whether they are in China or other developing countries. Specifically in China, the Guangxi government should adopt strict marine environmental regulation policies to force Fangchenggang industrial enterprises to make changes towards cleaner and more sustainable production, and should continue to promote innovative development of the city. Evidence from the world's largest developing country indicates that environmental regulation and innovation can provide a win-win in underdeveloped areas, in contrast to the view of environmental Kuznets curve.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Marine biological characteristics and environmental legal policy optimization based on heterogeneous computing environment

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Marine biological characteristics and environmental legal policy optimization based on heterogeneous computing environment