544 



existing destructive practices, the assessment of marine 

 environments relative to the carrying capacity of 

 Earth for Man, and the creation of marine parks, 

 sanctuaries, and control areas for research. These 

 ecological aspects have to date been attacked in a 

 piecemeal fashion. Ultimately, the answers will depend 

 upon value judgements about what sort of a world we 

 choose to live in. The late Fairfield Osborn (1953) 

 asked : Ts the purpose of our civilization really to see 

 how much the earth and human spirit can sustain?' 



This paper considers biology and law as they reflect 

 upon what we may call the Marine Revolution. Biology 

 and law require different approaches. The body of law 

 by which we exercise control and responsibility is of 

 Man's creation. It should reflect common sense and be 

 capable of rational alteration. Natural phenomena 

 may make no 'sense' at all, and their complexities are 

 infinite. It has been stated that the ecosystem is not 

 only more complex than we think it is; it is also more 

 complex than we can think. The ecologist can rarely be 

 definitive. He often experiences great difficulty in 

 explaining, even to some fellow scientists and especially 

 to engineers and technicians, the real nature of the 

 ecological crisis. Ehrlich's (1969) 'Eco-catastrophe' 

 sounds to many hke alarmist stuff, yet it has a funda- 

 mental basis of perception. 



To a great extent we are slaves of our own history. 

 The laissez faire spirit of exploitation, the goal of 

 economic growth, Man's socio-religious beliefs which 

 separates him from Nature, and the conflict and case- 

 history methods of law make little sense when applied 

 to the environment. The emerging 'Marine Revolution' 

 poses to those concepts a challenge which magnifies 

 the importance of the sea far beyond its resource 

 value. The wide recognition that this is so is reflected 

 by the numbers of recent symposia and reports on the 

 exploration, use, and legal regimes of the sea. 

 Unfortunately, meetings of the American Bar Associa- 

 tion and the Marine Technology Society, among others, 

 have been composed almost entirely of industry 

 representatives, lawyers, and a scattering of govern- 

 ment officials, naval personnel, and fisheries biolo- 

 gists — the last mostly representing mission-oriented 

 governmental agencies or industry. Marine ecologists 

 have been virtually absent ! 



In spite of this, the intensifying debate has produced 

 the beginnings of workable ideas. The ecosystem 

 approach may be just over the horizon, the greatest 

 present need being for marine ecologists to make their 

 voices heard. If consideration for the ecosystem be 

 added to the debate, it is possible that non-destructive 

 and cooperative exploitation on an international basis 

 will result, and perhaps then marine ecosystems will 

 not suifer further. 



THE MARINE REVOLUTION 



Man's massive entry into 'inner space' initiates 

 what we are calling the Marine Revolution. It is 

 resulting in increased resource utilization and new 

 regimes for law, politics, and socio-economics, as Man 

 investigates, uses, and hopefully will conserve, that 

 three-quarters of the world's surface which has been 

 mostly foreign to him. 



Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. Some 

 thousands of years ago, Man began to grow his own 

 food. This change from the hunter-gatherer to the agri- 

 culturalist comprized the Agricultural Revolution. It 

 led to the diversity of occupations which marks present 

 urban culture. The Agricultural Revolution produced 

 more food in a more accessible form than was available 

 to the hunter-gatherer. Food, which presumably had 

 been a limiting factor, was limiting no more. The 

 carrying capacity of land for humans rose and the 

 population grew accordingly. 



The Industrial Revolution has been going on for the 

 last two centuries or more. It has been marked by the 

 growth of science and technology, by increased 

 resource-use, and by expanded diversity and eflSciency 

 of human skills. It has meant a turning away from the 

 agricultural way of life to an increasingly urbanized 

 and 'artificial' one. It once again increased the carrying 

 capacity of the land for human beings and led to a 

 spectacular decrease in death control without concomi- 

 tant birth control. Most significantly of all, the Indus- 

 trial Revolution, in its greed for resources, has 

 produced environmental destruction at an astounding 

 and dangerous pace. Forests have been cut, land has 

 been eroded and stripped, bays have been polluted and 

 filled, and the result of all of these and other activities 

 has been to lower the long-term carrying capacity of 

 land for future human populations, notwithstanding 

 the temporary increase which technology has made 

 possible. Such environmental wastage makes our wish 

 to provide a better life for our children seem to be 

 sheer hypocracy. 



The Marine Revolution. Thus does Man turn to the 

 seas which become increasingly vital for his resources. 

 However, the Marine Revolution is not totally a con- 

 sequence of the exhaustion of the land. Man also turns 

 to the sea as it lies before him in the form of a challenge 

 which he is now becoming technologically able to 

 accept. 'Products are sold on an open world market 

 that cares nothing about the origin of the material; 

 one competes only against price' (Bascom, 1966). 



Thus, we accept the challenge of the sea, being not a 

 little starry-eyed over our technology. But we must 

 remind ourselves that Man remains a hunter-gatherer 

 in the oceans; in only an insignificant few places does 



