With piracy raging in the Indian Ocean, international disputes over undersea oil and gas, and chronic overfishing, the oceans have rarely been subject to such varied and environmentally damaging conflict outside a world war. In Who Rules the Waves? Denise Russell gives us a rare insight into these issues and how they could be resolved.International law states that a coastal country has territorial rights for 12 miles into the sea beyond its coastline, and economic rights for 200 miles, but in practice many countries have virtually no control over their own waters, and there is no international agency powerful enough to settle disputes. Russell provides a thorough examination of the politics of the sea, showing that without a radical change in ocean governance, accelerating climate change and overuse of the sea's resources is likely to have catastrophic effects.
Author(s): Denise Russell
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 206
Who Rules The Waves?......Page 4
Contents......Page 8
List of Figures and Tables......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 11
Introduction......Page 12
Early attempts to close off the seas......Page 17
Pirates, privateers and the domination of the seas......Page 18
Grotius' arguments for freedom of the seas......Page 25
Replies to Grotius defending closure of the seas......Page 28
Limits to freedom of the seas......Page 32
Grotius' principles in the current law of the sea......Page 34
Climate change, rising sea levels and the displacement of island communities......Page 37
Who has a claim?......Page 40
Anarctic and the Southern Ocean......Page 43
The Arctic Ocean......Page 44
Ecological threats from oil and gas activities in the Arctic......Page 46
Stresses on the Arctic from climate change......Page 51
Ocean acidification......Page 53
Different ways of valuing the polar regions......Page 55
3. Underwater Cultural Heritage......Page 58
What is underwater cultural heritage?......Page 59
Salvage laws......Page 60
Treasure salvors and ownership......Page 62
National ownership......Page 63
Common heritage......Page 66
The Alondra Rainbow......Page 71
The Law of the sea and contemporary piracy......Page 72
Why piracy now?......Page 78
The rise of piracy in Somalia......Page 81
Pirate attacks on private boats......Page 86
Terrorism on the sea......Page 87
The cod wars......Page 95
The turbot war......Page 98
Fish piracy......Page 102
Threats to fish populations from climate change and ocean acidification......Page 110
The war on fish......Page 111
Whales and dolphins......Page 116
Cetaceans and morality......Page 117
Threats facing cetaceans......Page 119
Protection agencies......Page 128
Sea gypsies: people without an address or 'names that can be found in books'......Page 132
The sea as home......Page 140
Threats to sea-gypsy cultures......Page 143
Sea borders, shark fishing and cultural survival......Page 145
Ownership as belonging......Page 148
Contemporary attempts to assert ownership of the oceans by indigenous groups......Page 151
Australian High Court decisions on Sea Rights......Page 153
Indigenous sea rights and envirinmental threats......Page 159
Ownership of coastal areas......Page 161
Ownership of international waters......Page 163
International ocean governance......Page 169
Implementation of a new ocean management regime......Page 174
Notes......Page 176
Index......Page 197
