context
european marine regions range from clear oceans to about wholly land-locked seas. Each sea is shared by a big many people, cultures, and activities with dependencies that can stretch back for millennium. They are besides the home plate to thousands of species of plants and animals .
Marine regions have long been drivers of economic emergence, providing natural resources and access to trade and transport, opportunities for refreshment, etc. Maritime activities today remain all-important to the economy and to society in general, with high expectations for future growth. [ 1 ] The table on european maritime activities and potential environmental issues provides an estimate based on best available resources, but should be considered with circumspection given the significant uncertainties of the socio-economic data.
Reading: Maritime activities
Preventing or reducing environmental wrong and achieving sustainable use of the marine environment remain a challenge. Addressing it should be key for Europe ‘s growth given the services and benefits that healthy oceans can deliver. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
A count of European Union ( EU ) policy initiatives therefore focus on the sustainable exploitation of marine resources. These include the Common Fisheries Policy ( CFP ) and the Integrated Maritime Policy ( IMP ). The IMP covers maritime spatial planning ( MSP ), which aims to provide a sustainable allotment and development of different ocean uses bringing in line economic, social and environmental concerns ( as covered by the holocene EU Directive on MSP ), and the EU ‘s Blue Growth agenda. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive ( MSFD ) and its ecosystem-based approach to management provide a chopine and guidance for balancing the use of the seas with the want to keep them healthy. The EU Biodiversity Strategy requires achieving healthy commercial pisces stocks and avoiding significant adverse impacts on early stocks, species and ecosystems .
It is besides recognised that EU coastal areas require attention in involve to adaptation to climate change in an attempt to protect homo wellbeing ( EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change ) .
Key trends
The function of the seas and coasts has increased as traditional industries grow and as modern industries emerge. These industries are substantive to the european economy and company with an estimated gross value added ( GVA ) of at least EUR 460–485 billion and employ at least 6.6–7 million people ( see table on european maritime activities and electric potential environmental issues ). [ 5 ]
A number of maritime activities are in the early on stages of emergence including offshore renewable energy production ( end product increased by 21.7 % ( MW ) between 2003–2008 ), facility of cables and pipelines, mineral mining and extraction of genetic resources. [ 5 ] early more consolidate nautical activities are besides experiencing emergence. Maritime transport of freight is expected to grow between 3 % and 4 % for goods handled per annum. Industries such as shipbuilding and port operations are expected to grow in the next ten. coastal tourism and diversion are authoritative motors of the European amobarbital sodium economy, with significant total value and use. [ 6 ]
early maritime activities are experiencing a stable situation or descent, but remain crucial for the value and jobs they provide. full catches in european fisheries have been decreasing from 6.9 million tonnes in 2001 to 3.5 million tonnes in 2011. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Important progress is seen in the count of pisces stock fished at more sustainable levels in the North-East Atlantic and the Baltic Sea though unsustainable fishing practices like bottom-trawling remains .
aquaculture production is levelling off in Europe. petroleum and natural gas extraction is declining in the North Sea and it decreased by 4.8 % GVA in the period 2003–2008 in Europe as a whole. [ 5 ] The sector remains a full of life region of the economy, as raw fields are discovered in the Barents Sea and Mediterranean Sea .
The main direct human pressures affecting european seas can be attributed to several of these activities and include : selective extraction of species ( i.e. fisheries ), seafloor damage, befoulment by nutrient enrichment and contaminants, and the diffuse of non-indigenous species .
coastal eutrophication can result from excess nutrients from department of agriculture, forestry and municipal godforsaken water fire. A decrease in alimentary levels are being seen in the North-East Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea. [ 9 ] [ 10 ]
Read more: A Man Quotes Maritime Law To Avoid Ticket
Contaminants are far-flung in the marine environmen t, originating from untreated thriftlessness water, port activities and other areas. A downward course is seen in the North-East Atlantic for run and lindane, among others. An upward vogue is seen in the Mediterranean Sea for mercury and leash. [ 11 ] The initiation of non-indigenous species is increasing in european seas through embark, the Suez Canal and to a much lesser academic degree aquaculture .
Increasing amounts of marine litter — by and large coming from land-based sources — are ending up in the seas. [ 12 ] Underwater noise that results from activities such as the constitution of offshore construction or shipping is besides of growing business .
It is unmanageable to determine the unharmed range of specific interactions between these activities, their pressures and their accumulative impacts. however, attest shows that they have induced large-scale changes on marine ecosystems, including areas with no oxygen, collapse of pisces populations and loss of biodiversity. [ 13 ]
Climate change is the main indirect pressure on the marine environment leading to increased ocean surface temperature and acidification. The blend effects of these physical impacts decrease the overall resilience of marine ecosystems and makes them even more vulnerable to other pressures, such as alimentary enrichment. [ 14 ]
Prospects
As land-based sources of natural resources are being depleted and available space on land is occupied, our attention increasingly moves towards the sea. This situation has created an orifice for what the european Commission has referred to as Blue Growth. This concept acknowledges Europe ‘s potent maritime inheritance and will look to provide guidance and solutions to harness electric potential of the seas for jobs and economic growth .
The european Commission launched its Blue Growth Strategy in 2012 as a contribution to the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The Blue Growth Strategy will look towards collaboration between Member States and diligence on the development of offshore renewable energy, coastal tourism, seabed mining and ‘blue ‘ biotechnology [ 1 ] along three components :
- specific integration of policy measures, with focus on improving access to information about the sea, maritime spatial planning and maritime surveillance;
- sea basin strategies to promote sustainable growth that take local factors into account;
- a targeted approach towards specific activities to utilise their full potential.
Blue Growth may have great potential, but only if the right poise is given to sustainability challenges. This is specially true given the current levels of marine environmental abasement. The Blue Growth Strategy is recognising the dual challenge of supporting sustainable use of the ocean alongside achieving a healthy condition for the sea. For example, the need to reduce greenhouse gases has already steered the development of offshore renewable energy installations. however, as many activities are expected to increase significantly over the following ten it is authoritative to better sympathize and account for the synergistic and accumulative effects from past, stage and future homo activities acting upon the state of marine ecosystems .
A number of policy and social sustainability challenges exist : How to achieve human exploitation within the sea ‘s ecological limits in order to ensure long-run ecosystem health and resilience ? How to move from prioritising short-run economic gains to sustainable resource use ?
Read more: Maritime search and rescue – Documentary
While climate change moderation requires regional action and ball-shaped cooperation, some of the remaining, more direct, sectoral or point beginning pressures can be addressed directly by the EU through its policies and legislation. however, sustainability challenges will remain unless ache and innovative solutions are developed and implemented at a rate that coincides with increasing exploitation of the seas. Solutions that command, as a pre-requisite, the execution of the MSFD ecosystem-based set about to the management of homo activities .
future solutions will need to better acknowledge the connections between societies and marine ecosystems adenine well as between human wellbeing and ecosystem services across regional and european scales. They will have to take into report the accumulative pressures within and across sectors, while respecting the regional differences of our seas. last, they will have to better recognise the multiple EU policy objectives influencing the use of and the health of the sea .
A keystone challenge in the coming decade will be to steer policy expectations for Blue Growth towards the EU policy visions of establishing a round green economy and exist well within the ecological limits of the sea. ecological limits should be respected if the loss of biodiversity is to be halted and preserve marine ecosystems and the likely services we could derive from them in the future .
