Australian Maritime Issues 2005 - Royal Australian Navy

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AUSTRALIAN MARITIME ISSUES 2005: SPC-A ANNUAL
Contemporary Conceptions of the Ocean
Today, at the turn of the 21st century, humanity’s relationship with the ocean has altered
dramatically from the past. While the maritime environment remains vast, people are
constantly present, in varying concentrations, in every ocean. This permanent human
presence is the result of the massive increase in the value and relative scarcity of marine
resources, and also the ubiquity of international trade.
The sea remains the primary means of transport for the bulk of world trade, the volume
of which has expanded greatly. In some ways, this trade has become simpler, as
containerisation of many products has meant relatively fewer ships, ports and routes for
high value goods in particular. For the transport of bulk products (oil, gas, ores, wheat,
etc.), ships are now often specialised to transport only a few types of cargo on specific
routes; the paramount example being liquified natural gas (LNG) carriers. Although this
makes the trade more efficient, it also makes it potentially more vulnerable to disruption.
Fewer ships make each a more valuable target, and specialisation ensures that there is
an even smaller pool of possible replacement vessels.
Knowledge of the resources the oceans contain has expanded. The concurrent growth in
demand for and exploitation of marine resources has dramatically increased their relative
scarcity and value. This is reflected in the current state of international maritime law: the
1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) is a detailed document,
covering many aspects of humanity’s expanded use of the maritime environment. Perhaps
the most significant feature of the LOSC is the extension of sovereignty and sovereign
rights afforded to coastal states. A century ago a coastal state could only claim significant
rights out to three nautical miles (nm) (about five and a half kilometres); under the LOSC
they can be claimed to between 200 nm and 350 nm, depending on the right being
claimed and the proximity of other claimants. Even resources outside these vast areas
may be claimed in part by a coastal state, under laws governing highly migratory species
and those that straddle maritime boundaries. The oceans, which Mahan described as a
‘great common’, 4 are now increasingly being fenced.
In addition to humanity’s permanent presence in so many parts of the marine
environment, our conception of the sea is quite different. Although the oceans are still
vast and beyond control, they are demonstrably not beyond human influence. Pollution
and the harvesting of marine resources are two of the most obvious examples. Marine
resources, in particular fish stocks, have until quite recently been thought of as a
valuable but effectively unlimited resource. 5 It is now known that this is not so and many
stocks have simply collapsed from over-fishing. Pollution of the oceans has become an
important issue and the extent of the degradation of the marine environment from both
land and sea sources is now evident. The environment has become more highly valued as
appreciation of its fragility and our dependence upon it has grown. Tourism and fishing
are two important industries that are immediately affected by the state of the marine
environment, and numerous other linkages may also be observed. 6
Another factor, not uniquely marine in nature, which has changed human perception of
the oceans, is globalisation. Although this term has come to mean a great many things,