Protection Of Marine Environment Research Articles

Establishing a mechanism for international cooperation for Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water monitoring

The Japanese government’s unilateral decision to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean has caused immense nuclear safety risks. Monitoring the unclear-contaminated water is a starting point to combat these risks and seek remedies for the rights and interests of all concerned parties. The establishment of a mechanism for international cooperation in this respect is necessary to handle the risks of the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water and to lay the foundation of a framework for tackling any future disposal of nuclear-contaminated water following Japan’s example. At present, the international legal systems in the spheres of nuclear safety and security, marine environmental protection, and other areas, as well as the questioning of the monitoring reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by the relevant parties, the monitoring practices of historical nuclear accidents, and numerous radioactivity monitoring mechanisms have provided the institutional and practical basis for constructing such a mechanism. The mechanism can be promoted by the IAEA through its existing mechanisms or be jointly initiated by China, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the Pacific Island countries, among other stakeholders. Specifically, this mechanism should consist of three levels: first, the framework of the basic legal system, including the cooperative principles of national sovereignty, interest-relatedness, and procedural fairness, and the signing of the Framework Convention on the Monitoring of Fukushima’s nuclear-contaminated water and its Optional Protocol; second, the organizational structure and its responsibilities, which may include the Conference of Parties as the decision-making body, the Secretariat as the central coordinating body, and the monitoring committees in various fields as specific implementing agencies; and third, specific administrative arrangements, which involve the standardization of monitoring, the management system of monitoring networks and stations, the rules for monitoring procedures, and the rules for the utilization of the monitoring data, etc. With the urgent need for the scientific and fair monitoring of Fukushima’s nuclear-contaminated water, China, as a stakeholder country, can promote the establishment of such a mechanism for monitoring nuclear-contaminated water through the following paths: ① It is necessary to clarify the factors affecting the construction of an international cooperation mechanism for monitoring nuclear-contaminated water so as to ascertain the standpoints of the stakeholders, claims of their interests, contents of their cooperation, and the relevant international relations. ② On the basis of existing practices, China should consider improving the monitoring mechanism to cope with the risks of the discharge of Fukushima’s nuclear-contaminated water by formulating targeted policies and systems, setting up specialized monitoring institutions, and establishing a systematic monitoring network system. ③ This is an effective way for China to actively promote the participation of stakeholders in the construction of an international cooperation mechanism for monitoring nuclear-contaminated water in Fukushima by further innovating the dissemination mechanism to address the risk of Fukushima’s nuclear-contaminated water discharging into the sea and facilitating the identification of issues for international cooperation in monitoring Fukushima’s nuclear-contaminated water based on the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind.

International Law Issues Concerning Marine Environment Protection in the Arctic

International Law Issues Concerning Marine Environment Protection in the Arctic

Impact of the coupling relationship between marine industry and regional development on the marine economy

To investigate the relationship between the marine industry and regional development, and assess its impact on the marine economy. The study creates an evaluation index system for the coupling relationship between the marine economy and regional development. It applies coupling theory and combines the hierarchical analysis method with the entropy weight method to determine the weight of each index. By constructing the coupling degree and coupling coordination degree model, this paper quantitatively analyzes the coupling relationship and applies the coefficient of variation to assess the coordinated development differences between different regions. The study utilized data from the official China Marine Statistical Yearbook. The analysis revealed an upward trend in the coupling degree of the marine economy and regional development during the study period, increasing from 0.58 to 0.72. This indicated a significant strengthening of the interaction and synergistic development between the two. In typical coastal areas, the coupling degree increased from 0.62 to 0.78, indicating the significant contribution of the marine industry to the region's comprehensive economic development. The study proposes policy recommendations to enhance the adjustment of the marine industrial structure and technological innovation, promote inter-regional cooperation and resource sharing, and strengthen marine environmental protection and sustainable resource utilization. These measures aim to promote the development of the marine economy while safeguarding marine resources.

Study on the interpretation and application of the concept of “effective control” by the ISA

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) include the term of “effective control” in its sponsorship provisions but do not clarify its meaning. To arrive at a consensus on its connotation, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) began discussions on the concept of “effective control” that have been ongoing since 2014 but have still not yielded any definite conclusion. The interpretation and application of this concept tend to be construed as a regulatory standard in current discussion documents and practices of the ISA, where this allow contractors from developed countries to easily use the method of “sponsoring states of convenience” to apply for and obtain contracts to reserved areas. This is inimical to the goals of effective marine environmental protection and the implementation of preferential treatment for developing countries. The international community should pay attention to this issue and correct the unreasonable tendencies of the ISA in this regard.

Current Research Status of Azaspiracids.

The presence and impact of toxins have been detected in various regions worldwide ever since the discovery of azaspiracids (AZAs) in 1995. These toxins have had detrimental effects on marine resource utilization, marine environmental protection, and fishery production. Over the course of more than two decades of research and development, scientists from all over the world have conducted comprehensive studies on the in vivo metabolism, in vitro synthesis methods, pathogenic mechanisms, and toxicology of these toxins. This paper aims to provide a systematic introduction to the discovery, distribution, pathogenic mechanism, in vivo biosynthesis, and in vitro artificial synthesis of AZA toxins. Additionally, it will summarize various detection methods employed over the past 20 years, along with their advantages and disadvantages. This effort will contribute to the future development of rapid detection technologies and the invention of detection devices for AZAs in marine environmental samples.

Study on the protective performance of coating system for thermal spraying zinc on radar

In response to the harsh marine environment protection needs of radar, the protective performance of 9 types of coating systems for thermal spraying zinc was studied through condensation tests, salt spray tests, and temperature tests. The blistering phenomenon of the radar thermal spraying zinc matching protective coating system was analyzed. The research results showed that the blistering of the thermal spraying zinc matching protective coating system may be related to the pores of the sealing coating. Among the 9 coating systems, the comprehensive performance of B and D coating systems in terms of moisture resistance, salt spray resistance, and temperature stress resistance is significantly superior to other coatings. The radar using B and D coating systems has been successfully applied to various types of harsh marine environments, improving the radar’s protective performance.

Chemical versus Natural Biocide Compounds - Minireview on Antifouling Coatings

Marine biofouling is an old problem, known and studied for centuries, since the beginning of navigation. The accumulation of marine biofouling begins on the submerged portion of an ocean-going vessel or on any installation (equipments, pipes, platforms, etc.) within minutes of contact with seawater. Over time, this accumulation increases the ship's resistance, leading to increases in the physical resistance of the ship in the water, with negative consequences on fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, high maintenance costs (due to corrosion), and a negative impact on the marine environment (due to the release of toic bioactive compounds into the environment and the transfer of invasive species). These environmental issues were identified and recognized by the IMO, which in the early 1990s, through the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), adopted a resolution recommending that member governments adopt measures to eliminate TBT-based antifouling paints. These recommendations have led to the identification, development, and application of new antifouling technologies that could provide the maritime industry with a significant potential opportunity with an innovative, cost-effective, and efficient approach to the effects of marine biofouling. Our study aimed to make a small incursion in time, through the specialized literature on methods used to combat marine fouling, to highlight new research approaches to the identification and use of natural biocides to replace chemical ones. The targeting of research directions towards the identification of the most environmentally friendly antifouling compounds, in particular natural marine compounds, has been a focus of international researchers in recent years. To achieve this goal, going back to nature is currently the best option, as it could provide us with very effective models for research and development of antifouling coatings. In the development and modeling of new antifouling paints, the influence of the physical-chemical parameters of seawater (pH, salinity, temperature) on the chemical components (active groups) of the biocides used should not be ignored. The aim of this study is to highlight the importance of developing new antifouling paint technologies using biodegradable, non-toic, and environmentally friendly compounds according to international legislation. In recent years there has been an increasing emphasis in research studies on the combination of natural biocides (obtained through the valorization of marine wastes) with natural or synthetic hydrogels whose action is to minimize the attachment of marine fouling.

Biosensors for ocean acidification detection

Ocean acidification is a global environmental problem that significantly impacts Marine ecosystems and biodiversity. The traditional chemical analysis method has the problems of complex equipment and high cost in ocean acidification monitoring. In recent years, fluorescent protein biosensor technology, as an innovative monitoring method, has provided a new solution for the real-time detection of ocean acidification. Compared with traditional chemical analysis methods, fluorescent protein biosensors have the advantages of simple operation, high sensitivity and low cost. Current studies have demonstrated the potential of fluorescent protein biosensors for ocean acidification monitoring. The researchers designed a variety of fluorescent protein biosensors and conducted indoor and outdoor experimental validation. These results show that fluorescent protein biosensors can detect ocean acidification quickly and accurately and maintain stable performance under different environmental conditions. Further studies are needed to verify the consistency and reliability of fluorescent protein biosensors and traditional chemical analysis methods for ocean acidification monitoring. Future research directions include further improving the performance of the fluorescent protein biosensor, increasing its sensitivity and stability, and verifying its application in real Marine environments. This will help establish a better monitoring network for ocean acidification and provide a reliable scientific basis for Marine environmental protection and management decisions. The development and application of fluorescent protein biosensor technology will provide important support and guidance for us to better understand the impact of ocean acidification.

Crustal density structure investigation of the East China Sea and adjacent regions using wavenumber domain 3D density imaging method

The East China Sea, situated at the intersection of the Eurasian, Philippine Sea, and Pacific plates, is characterized by complex geology influenced by tectonic phenomena such as plate movements, volcanism, faults, and uplifts. Crustal density structure inversion provides a thorough understanding of the region's geological history as well as Earth's dynamical evolution, providing critical insights into seismic disaster mitigation, resource exploration, marine environmental protection, and maritime safety. The inversion process, on the other hand, presents challenges in data quality, quantity, model complexity, uncertainty, and computational resources. With the advancement of next-generation satellite gravity measurements and developing inversion techniques, the inversion of marine crustal density structures promises to be more precise and comprehensive. We explored the density distribution in the East China Sea and surrounding areas using an innovative wavenumber domain three-dimensional density imaging method along with high-precision global satellite gravity data. By overcoming data quality and computing resource constraints, wavenumber domain three-dimensional density imaging has transformed the discipline of marine geophysics, successfully delivering accurate density distributions in the study area. We were able to get a more precise and comprehensive characterization of the crustal density structure by combining high-precision satellite gravity data and cutting-edge imaging methods. Our investigation has unveiled previously unknown details about density distribution in the East China Sea and its environs. The East China Sea shelf displays smooth low-density perturbations at 18 km depth, whereas the trench–arc–basin region exhibits increasing density perturbations. Notably, the Okinawa Trough, which is surrounded by the Tokara Volcanic Ridge and the Ryukyu Trench, displays strong positive anomalies with a north–northeastern to northeastern orientation. In contrast, the Ryukyu Ridge and the Philippine Sea Basin exhibit smaller negative values and substantial northwestward positive density trends, respectively. These findings indicate diverse material distribution, which provides important insights into the area’s geological evolution and tectonic processes. This study adds new insights into density distribution in the East China Sea and adjacent regions, offering information on the geological complexity of the region. The research lays the groundwork for future research on crustal dynamics and enhances the field of marine geophysics and related disciplines.Graphical abstract

Modeled underwater sound levels in the Pan-Arctic due to increased shipping: Analysis from 2013 to 2019.

The loss of Arctic sea ice is one of the most visible signs of global climate change. As Arctic sea ice has retreated, Arctic marine shipping has increased. The Pan-Arctic's unique underwater acoustic properties mean that even small increases in ship traffic can have a significant effect on the ambient soundscape. This study presents the first long-term, basin-scale model of shipping noise in the Pan-Arctic with a focus on a few select sub-regions. The Arctic Ship Traffic Database from the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment is used in this study to model the locations and source levels from ships operating in the Pan-Arctic between 2013 and 2019. The acoustic footprint of these ships is explored temporally for the entire basin as well as for the select large maritime ecosystems of the Barents Sea, the Northern Bering-Chukchi Sea, and Baffin Bay. From 2013 to 2019, modeled shipping noise propagating underwater broadly increased between 5-20 dB across the Pan-Arctic, but more specific results in sub-regions are presented and discussed.

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.

Protection and Progress of the Marine Environment

The marine environment is an important part of the earth's ecosystem and is of great significance to maintaining the earth's ecological balance and the sustainable development of human beings. However, due to undue interference and pollution from human activities, the marine environment is facing serious threats. The aim is to explore the importance of protecting the marine environment and propose some feasible measures to reduce marine pollution and protect marine biodiversity. In a word, the research on marine environmental protection is of great significance for maintaining ecological balance, protecting endangered species, regulating climate, rationally utilizing resources and reducing environmental pollution. Through scientific research and reasonable management, we can protect and make good use of marine resources and create good conditions for future sustainable development. In recent years, various countries and the United Nations government have formulated many laws and policies on ocean protection, but these laws are still flawed and need to be improved and supplemented.

Vibration energy harvesting from an unmanned surface vehicle: Concept design, open sea tests and harvester optimization

With the growing worldwide attention to marine environment protection, marine resource exploration, and so on, unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) have become one of the critical mobile marine observation equipment. However, USVs generally rely on limited onboard batteries to provide electricity, and thus, they have low endurance and poor load capacity. The lack of a long-term power supply is currently a great challenge for the further application and development of USVs. Harvesting energy from the working environment of USVs is a promising solution to address that problem. To demonstrate the possibility of this scheme, a physical prototype of a novel USV with a built-in vibration energy harvester has been fabricated and tested in an open sea for the first time. Moreover, a full-coupled mathematical model is developed to further optimize the power performance of the USV based on the Taguchi method. Experimental results show that this prototype can generate a maximum instantaneous electric power of 277.71 mW, 112.95 mW and 101.27 mW when the USV is in a status of towage, propulsive and free-floating, respectively. Simulation results present that the optimized USV can achieve a mean electric power of 246.14 mW, which is improved by 49.88% compared with the unoptimized results of the developed prototype.

A gated cross-domain collaborative network for underwater object detection

Underwater object detection (UOD) plays a significant role in aquaculture and marine environmental protection. Considering the challenges posed by low contrast and low-light conditions in underwater environments, several underwater image enhancement (UIE) methods have been proposed to improve the quality of underwater images. However, only using the enhanced images does not improve the performance of UOD, since it may unavoidably remove or alter critical patterns and details of underwater objects. In contrast, we believe that exploring the complementary information from the two domains is beneficial for UOD. The raw image preserves the natural characteristics of the scene and texture information of the objects, while the enhanced image improves the visibility of underwater objects. Based on this perspective, we propose a Gated Cross-domain Collaborative Network (GCC-Net) to address the challenges of poor visibility and low contrast in underwater environments, which comprises three dedicated components. Firstly, a real-time UIE method is employed to generate enhanced images, which can improve the visibility of objects in low-contrast areas. Secondly, a cross-domain feature interaction module is introduced to facilitate the interaction and mine complementary information between raw and enhanced image features. Thirdly, to prevent the contamination of unreliable generated results, a gated feature fusion module is proposed to adaptively control the fusion ratio of cross-domain information. Our method presents a new UOD paradigm from the perspective of cross-domain information interaction and fusion. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed GCC-Net achieves state-of-the-art performance on four underwater datasets.

On the Legal Liability of Coastal Engineering Construction Projects not Conducting Environmental Impact Assessment by the Law of Marine Environmental Protection

On the Legal Liability of Coastal Engineering Construction Projects not Conducting Environmental Impact Assessment by the Law of Marine Environmental Protection

Fabrication of robust, durable and integrated Janus coating for corrosion and fouling protection in marine environment

Janus membranes with different valuable characteristics and integrated structures have attracted a great interest of researches in order to achieve important breakthroughs in the related fields. However, the application of Janus membranes for development of anticorrosion coatings on metallic structures has been limited, which is due to weak interfacial bonding within the Janus structure and its vulnerability to damage. To address the aforementioned drawbacks, a novel strategy based on multifunction Janus membranes is presented. In this research, the steel is coated with polyurethane, followed by electrospinning a coating composed of polyurethane nanofibers with kaolin nanoparticles, and finally coated with epoxy resin containing modified ZnO to obtain the Janus membrane. The interface of the Janus membrane is accompanied by covalent bonds, leading to 10-fold enhancement in interface adhesion compared to the resin coating. The obtained Janus coating has a top surface that is superhydrophobic and a bottom surface that is hydrophilic, with excellent antiwetting and antibacterial properties. Moreover, the Janus coating shows outstanding barrier properties and the corresponding impedance modulus is maintained about 109 Ω•cm2 after 75 immersion days. Notably, the coating surface has retained superhydrophobicity after abrasion test with 600-grit sandpaper under a load of 1000 g for 60 m distance. The antibacterial tests have shown the Janus coating could decrease the bacterial coverage on the surface by 25 %. This study has revealed the potential of the Janus electrofibrous membrane as directly coatings on the metallic substrates for the first time, and in this way, multifunction coating with corrosion and fouling protection performances has been achieved.

The UN Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) — An ocean science-policy interface standing the test of time

Addressing the wide range of marine pollution problems facing the global ocean requires a continual transfer of credible, relevant and timely scientific information to policy and decision makers in coastal and ocean management. The United Nations GESAMP (Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection) is a long-standing scientific advisory group providing such information on a wide range of marine topics and emerging issues of concern to ten UN Sponsoring Organizations. This paper presents an overview of GESAMPs operation and examples of its current work. The group's scientific output is often cited by national governments, inter-governmental groups, and a range of non-governmental groups. Given the growing concerns about ocean health and the impacts of many stressors in an era of climate change, the development of timely and effective ocean policy and decision making would benefit from wider recognition and application of GESAMPs work.

Relationship between economic growth and marine ecological environment based on VAR models

This study aims to investigate the inherent correlation between economic growth and marine conservation in the coastal regions of China, specifically the shifting relationship between high and low economic growth periods and marine pollution. A nonlinear model is employed to determine the dynamic relationship based on historical data, with the inclusion of a nonlinear zone system transfer factor to achieve this dynamic relationship. The study's data was sourced from a statistical database of 11 Chinese coastal provinces, containing details on economic growth rates and emissions of industrial waste. In the study, significant differences in the mean, variance and smoothing probability of the different provinces were observed in the different systems. Notably, Shandong recorded the highest mean μ2 in both systems, 0.7261* and 0.7261**, while the correlation coefficient between the two systems in the high growth area was −0.3543. Significant differences exist in the intrinsic links between economic growth and marine environmental protection within provinces and cities. Therefore, targeted strategies must be developed for specific regions when formulating economic and environmental policies.

Mask-guided deep learning fishing net detection and recognition based on underwater range gated laser imaging

In this paper, a mask-guided deep learning fishing net detection and recognition method based on underwater range gated laser imaging is proposed. Range gated laser imaging technology is used to obtain high quality underwater fishing net images with less water backscattering effect and background noise. A dual-phase training strategy including mask-guided feature extraction phase and classification finetune phase is proposed to avoid overfitting of training the neural network. The mask-guided feature extraction phase takes advantages of image segmentation training from synthetic dataset to get a better feature extraction performance. The highest overall accuracy of the proposed method reaches 95.49% in fishing net classification task under finetuned weight configuration. The proposed method can effectively help unmanned underwater vehicles and robots from entangling by fishing nets as well as retrieving derelict fishing nets for marine environment protection.

Unveiling microplastic spectral signatures under weathering and digestive environments through shortwave infrared hyperspectral sensing

Microplastic (MP) pollution presents a novel challenge for marine environmental protection, necessitating comprehensive and long-term monitoring and assessment approaches. Environmental MPs can undergo weathering and microorganism-related digestive processes, altering their original surface properties and chemical structure, thus complicating their quantification and identification. This study aims to establish a comprehensive hyperspectral database for weathered and digestion-degraded MPs, using a wide variety of polymer types collected as either virgin particles or commercial products (within a size range of approximately 3 mm), and to investigate the impact of these processes on their spectral characteristics. Polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) MPs exhibited significant responses to weathering treatment, as indicated by the formation of new characteristic peaks or slight peak shifts around 1679–1705 nm, which can be attributed to the formation of carbonyl and vinyl functional groups through Norrish reactions. Similarly, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and polystyrene (PS) MPs demonstrated notable degradation following digestive treatment, as evidenced by the emergence of new absorption peaks at approximately 1135–1165 nm, possibly associated with alterations involving carbonyl and vinyl functional groups. The results were further validated based on their comparable spectral characteristics of the resultant MPs to reference polymers and possible additives, considering a reasonably accurate match of approximately 80% for the studied MP samples. This study showcases the significant advantage of using shortwave infrared hyperspectral sensing for rapid identification of virgin and exposed MPs with a relatively large scan area after a simple sample preparation. This approach, combined with other complementary characterization techniques, shall provide highly throughput results for MPs identification. This research provides valuable insights into the features extracted from environmental MPs and establishes a foundation for improving their classification efficiency for environmental applications.