PLTC312

Oceans cover more than seventy percent of the surface of the Earth and contain both valuable renewable resources such as fish and whales, and nonrenewable resources such as oil and gas. This mixture of resources and increased diversification of ocean uses is a challenge to governance. The mobility of many ocean resources and frequent lack of information increases this challenge. Hence, for the past sixty years, national and subnational governments and international actors have worked together to develop a variety of policies to react to the collapse of fisheries, increased offshore oil and gas drilling, emergence of aquaculture and deterioration of coral reefs. In the future, challenges stemming from global climate change and ocean acidification will only increase these policy efforts.