1998 Year of the Ocean Ocean Living Resources 



In the past, most human activities were seen as separate from the ocean, or of such 

 insignificance in the face of the sea's vastness that they didn't matter. Pollution was one of the 

 first human actions to be seen as possibly damaging to the ocean. Huge oil spills in the early 

 1970s coincided with the emergence of the environmental movement and spurred governments 

 and the public to focus on pollution from ships. Blowouts from oil rigs off Santa Barbara. 

 California heightened concern about offshore oil drilling. Also at that time, ships routinely 

 disposed of wastes overboard, and concern was just beginning about land-based sources of 

 pollution or the effects of either of these sources on the marine environment. By the 1980s, ocean 

 dumping was internationally recognized as a problem and agreements were put in place to 

 control disposal of shipboard waste and intentional dumping. By then, Americans had made the 

 cormection between clean water and healthy coasts. Control of industrial and municipal waste 

 water discharges into rivers, streams and coastal waters has been regulated in the United States 

 since the passage of the Clean Water Act in the early 1970s. Dumping of industrial wastes and 

 sewage sludge into the ocean off U.S. coasts ended in 1988 and 1992, respectively, as a result of 

 the Ocean Dumping Ban Act of 1988. 



As the United Nations and its member nations, including the United States, prepare to 

 observe the Year of the Ocean, there is both increased awareness of human impacts on living 

 marine resources as well as good news about how these impacts are being addressed. The good 

 news is the growing worldwide acceptance of the precautionary approach to marine resource 

 management. A concept unheard of a decade ago, the precautionary approach states that in the 

 face of uncertainty, managers and decision makers must err on the side of conservation of living 

 marine resources and protection of the environment. This is the opposite of earlier resource 

 management approaches, where the proponent of resource use prevailed until something went 

 wrong. Representing a radical shift of the burden of proof from those who would conserve 

 resources to those who would use them, the precautionary approach is now being integrated into 

 U.S. policy and practice, as well as into many international agreements. And this is occurring 

 none too soon, since many ocean resources continue to decline in the face of increasing demands 

 upon them. 



The federal government, as steward of U.S. living marine resources in partnership with 

 the American people, has the opportunity to observe the Year of the Ocean in both a reflective 

 and forward-looking manner. The Year of the Ocean provides a vehicle to accomplish several 

 goals including; 



• increase public awareness of what is known about the marine environment 



• solidify and strengthen federal partnerships and cooperation with stakeholders 



• use acquired knowledge to act on behalf of the resources 



• use enhanced communication to engage others to act 



• expand the knowledge base and the application of the precautionary approach 



This paper is intended to provide stakeholders and interested constituents with 

 information on what is known about the state of living marine resources, how human actions 

 affect these resources, and what tools resource managers can use to progress from this year's 



C-7 



