Marine conservation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marine conservation, also known as marine resources conservation, is the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas. Marine conservation focuses on limiting human-caused damage to marine ecosystems, and on restoring damaged marine ecosystems. Marine conservation also focuses on preserving vulnerable marine species.
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[edit] Overview
Marine conservation is the study of conserving physical and biological marine resources and ecosystem functions. This is a relatively new discipline. Marine conservationists rely on a combination of scientific principles derived from marine biology, oceanography, and fisheries science, as well as on human factors such as demand for marine resources and marine law, economics and policy in order to determine how to best protect and conserve marine species and ecosystems. Marine conservation can be seen as a subdiscipline of conservation biology.
[edit] Techniques
Strategies and techniques for marine conservation tend to combine theoretical disciplines, such as population biology, with practical conservation strategies, such as setting up protected areas, as with marine protected areas (MPAs) or Voluntary Marine Conservation Areas. Other techniques include developing sustainable fisheries and restoring the populations of endangered species through artificial means.
Another focus of conservationists is on curtailing human activities that are detrimental to either marine ecosystems or species through policy, techniques such as fishing quotas, like those set up by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, or laws such as those listed below. Recognizing the economics involved in human use of marine ecosystems is key, as is education of the public about conservation issues.
[edit] Laws and treaties
International laws and treaties related to marine conservation include the 1966 Convention on Fishing and Conservation of Living Resources of the High Seas. United States laws related to marine conservation include the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, as well as the 1972 Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act which established the National Marine Sanctuaries program.
[edit] Organizations and education
There are marine conservation organizations throughout the world that focus on funding conservation efforts, educating the public and stakeholders, and lobbying for conservation law and policy. Examples of these organizations are the Marine Conservation Biology Institute (United States),Blue Frontier Campaign (United States), Frontier (the Society for Environmental Exploration) (United Kingdom), Marine Conservation Society (United Kingdom)and [Australian Marine Conservation Society].
On a regional level, PERSGA- the Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, is a regional entity serves as the secretariat for the Jeddah Convention-1982, one of the first regional marine agreements. PERSGA Member States are: Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
[edit] References
- Norse, Elliott A. and Crowder, Larry B. (Eds.) (2005) Marine Conservation Biology: The Science of Maintaining the Sea's Biodiversity, Island Press. ISBN 9781559636629
- Primack, Richard B. (1998). "Essentials of conservation biology." 2nd Ed. Sunderland, Ma: Sinauer.
- Ray, G. Carleton and McCormick-Ray, Jerry (eds). (2004). "Coastal-marine conservation: science and policy". Malden, Ma: Blackwell.
- Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI [1]) Bibliography of resources.
[edit] Further reading
- Koslow, Tony (2009). The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology, and Conservation of the Deep Sea. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226451268.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Marine conservation at the Open Directory Project
- U.S. National Marine Sanctuary Program
- Advancing Marine Conservation in Cambodia
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