Reservations and veto mechanisms found in marine conservation agreements have contributed to the decline of living ocean resources. This book chronicles their use in the history of key marine conservation and management regimes and examines the evolving legal framework that informs, and potentially limits, their use.

Although the ocean-and the resources within-seem limitless, there is clear evidence that human impacts such as overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution disrupt marine ecosystems and threaten the long-term productivity of the seas. Declining yields in many fisheries and decay of treasured marine habitats, such as coral reefs, has heightened interest in establishing a comprehensive system of marine protected areas (MPAs)-areas designated for special protection to enhance the management of marine resources. Therefore, there is an urgent need to evaluate how MPAs can be employed in the United States and internationally as tools to support specific conservation needs of marine and coastal waters. Marine Protected Areas compares conventional management of marine resources with proposals to augment these management strategies with a system of protected areas. The volume argues that implementation of MPAs should be incremental and adaptive, through the design of areas not only to conserve resources, but also to help us learn how to manage marine species more effectively.

Marine Mammal Conservation and the Law of the Sea lays out and critiques the marine mammal regulatory landscape. It introduces the rational conservation model, and details the modern threats to marine mammals, including climate change, by-catch, environmental pollution, ship strikes. Next, it discusses options for reform under UNCLOS and existing treaties, and finally introduces a new holistic treaty regime based on the rational conversation model, based in part on the UN Fish Stocks Agreement.

New Knowledge and Changing Circumstances in the Law of the Sea focuses on the challenges posed to the existing legal framework, in particular the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the various ways in which States are addressing these challenges.

This book investigates competing constructions of areas beyond national jurisdiction, and their role in the creation and articulations of legal principles, providing a broader perspective on the ongoing negotiation at the UN on marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction.

International Marine Mammal Law is a comprehensive, introductory volume on the legal regimes governing the conservation and utilisation of marine mammals. Written as a textbook, it provides basic overviews of international conservation law, which enable the reader to understand the greater implications of governance of a specific group of species. Paired with biological information on some marine mammal species, the international regimes for whales, seals and polar bears are explored — either as part of global regimes of international environmental governance or as regimes that were specifically designed for them. The book concludes with outlooks on the future of international marine mammal law, particularly in light of Japan’s withdrawal from the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in July 2019.

In The Marine Environment and United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14, leading marine experts assess the scope, achievements, and limitations of UNSDG 14 for the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources. Chapters discuss the challenges and gaps of ocean governance through five key sections: Conservation and Sustainable Use of Oceans and Their Resources; Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction; Status of Deep Seabed Minerals; Marine Pollution and Coastal Ecosystems; and Climate Change and the Oceans. This important book illustrates current challenges facing sustainable marine development and management, and provides necessary insights for a coherent path forward.

Coastal-Marine Conservation: Science and Policy introduces studentsand managers to complex conservation and management issues facingcoastal nations of the world, their citizens, and international andnon-governmental organizations. It aims to reduce complexity andinspire a greater consensus for more effective conservationaction. Presents the coastal realm as a heterogeneous, diverseecosystem of exceptionall high biological diversity andproductivity, and where conservation challenges are most difficultand urgent Examines the critical issues facing coastal-marine conservationand the mechanisms for dealing with them Reviews the basic science required for addressing conservationissues by presenting the coastal realm as a land-sea ecosystem ofglobal significance, and by reviewing the natural-history featuresof coastal-marine organisms Presents three ecologically and latitudinally distinct"real-world" case studies to create a context for understanding ofregional systems, their cultures, and their conservation: the polarBering Sea, the temperate Chesapeake Bay, and the tropicalBahamas Makes apparent the ecological stresses on the coastal realm,increasing rates of ecosystem change, loss of ecosystem health, andfragmented governance Synthesizes the major challenges for conservation and suggestsfuture policy and management strategies, including ecosystemmanagement and needs for achieving sustainability and addressingthe environmental debt This book is intended for undergraduates and graduates takingcourses in coastal and marine conservation and management, as wellas those actively engaged in coastal-marine conservationactivities, and gives the reader a clear steer to future managementapproaches. References additional to those in the book are available athttp://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/ray_references.pdf The artwork is available to download athttp://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ray/

"This book is based on presentations made at the Malmö Conference by many of the most knowledgeable experts on both the on-going bbnj negotiations at the United Nations and on the well- established UNCLOS principles and rules. The Malmö Conference featured remarks by distinguished diplomats followed by six parts devoted to identifying the major issues at the bbnj negotiations"--

The number of species found at a given point on the planet varies by orders of magnitude, yet large-scale gradients in biodiversity appear to follow some very general patterns. Little mechanistic theory has been formulated to explain the emergence of observed gradients of biodiversity both on land and in the oceans. Based on a comprehensive empirical synthesis of global patterns of species diversity and their drivers, A Theory of Global Biodiversity develops and applies a new theory that can predict such patterns from few underlying processes. The authors show that global patterns of biodiversity fall into four consistent categories, according to where species live: on land or in coastal, pelagic, and deep ocean habitats. The fact that most species groups, from bacteria to whales, appear to follow similar biogeographic patterns of richness within these habitats points toward some underlying structuring principles. Based on empirical analyses of environmental correlates across these habitats, the authors combine aspects of neutral, metabolic, and niche theory into one unifying framework. Applying it to model terrestrial and marine realms, the authors demonstrate that a relatively simple theory that incorporates temperature and community size as driving variables is able to explain divergent patterns of species richness at a global scale. Integrating ecological and evolutionary perspectives, A Theory of Global Biodiversity yields surprising insights into the fundamental mechanisms that shape the distribution of life on our planet.