The State of Our Oceans

From a Chinese Maritime

Lawyer’s Point of View

Who are we?We are a group of international legal specialists who specialize in maritime law. We are a Chinese law firm acting as a consultant for the PRC.

What is Maritime Law?Maritime law, or admiralty law, is one of the most established and oldest types of law. It generally covers laws or rules that govern tort, contract, marine commerce, ships, shipping, and worker compensation claims that arise on the world’s navigable waters. Topics can include salvage, towage, maritime liens, maritime contracts, marinas, and maritime injuries. In simpler words, Maritime law is law that deals with oceans or great bodies of water.When did this begin?China’s ocean and coasts are among the most intensely used marine areas on the planet. China passed the Maritime Environmental Protection Law in 1982.

Some Fast Facts.* Just 4 per cent of the world's oceans are now entirely undamaged by human activity.

*Forty-one per cent of the oceans are seriously damaged.

*Commercial long-liners targeting swordfish accidentally kill 40,000 sea turtles, 300,000 seabirds, and millions of sharks annually.  These non-target catches make up as much as 25 percent of the global catch.

*At least one in eight American women of childbearing age has unsafe levels of mercury in her blood, and 15 percent of babies born in the U.S. in 2000 were exposed to unacceptable levels of mercury.

A Quote:American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau wrote in 1839, "Who hears the fishes when they cry?"

China Maritime Environmental Protection LawChina passed the Maritime Environmental Protection Law in 1982. In 1996 and 1998 respectively, the China Ocean Agenda 21 and the White Paper – ‘The Development of China's Marine Programs’ were published, together forming the foundation for a sustainable development strategy for China’s ocean and coasts and for a national marine policy. With the arrival of the 21st century, the government has shifted even more of its focus onto marine development.

China Maritime Environmental

Protection Law 2CHINA OCEAN AGENDA 21 proposed the background, aims, and priority areas for the sustainable development of marine areas. Since the implantation of Agenda 21, the sustainable development of China ’s ocean and coasts has seen an almost 15-year history which coincides with the period of transition in China ’s economic and social development.

Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine

Environment from Land-based Activities

China is currently signing and joining many environmental treaties and conventions such the GPA (The Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based

Activities ) etc. The process by which China sustainably developing its marine areas is seeing continuous improvement, and there is a growing capacity for truly sustainable development of the ocean and coasts.

China’s Oceans and Coasts

China’s ocean and coasts are among the most intensely used marine areas on the planet and have made an extraordinary contribution to the nation’s dramatic economic development during the past half-century. They have helped to transform China into a truly global marine transportation nation complete with modern shipbuilding industries and competitive harbors and ports. Those same waters support fisheries and innovative mariculture industries that lead the world.

We need to focus on the deteriorating environmental conditions of China’s ocean and coasts and offers insights into why changes have occurred and what needs to be done to improve the situation.

One should not, however, mistakenly conclude that China is currently standing still and not attempting to correct matters. The truth is that China has already achieved much in ocean management and is well positioned to achieve sustainable development of its ocean and coasts.

What has China been doing?

For example, it has only been in the last couple of years that leading ocean management nations have adopted marine spatial planning as a key tool in their arsenal for implementing marine area-based management, but China has been working with the idea for nearly two decades and implemented their own initial marine functional zoning scheme in 2002. Fisheries nations recognize that seasonal closures are an important tool for the conservation of fisheries resources and the consequential sustainability of their fishing industries. Many nations successfully implement these closure strategies across single species and selective areas but China has been boldly implementing full summer closures across all species at sub-national regional levels since 1995.

Marine Spatial PlanningDemand for outputs (goods and services such as food and energy) usually exceeds the capacity of marine areas to meet all of the demands simultaneously. Marine resources are “common property resources” with open or free access to users. Free access often, if not always, leads to excessive use of marine resources, e.g., over fishing, and eventual exhaustion of the resources.

 

 Because not all of the outputs from marine areas, especially natural services such as wildlife habitat and nutrient cycling, can be expressed in monetary terms, markets cannot perform the allocation tasks. Some public process must be used to decide what mix of outputs from the marine area will be produced over time and space. That process is marine spatial planning.

The DefinitionMarine spatial planning is a public process of analyzing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives that usually have been specified through a political process. Characteristics of  marine spatial planning include ecosystem-based, area-based, integrated, adaptive, strategic and participatory.

Marine spatial planning is not an end in itself, but a practical way to create and establish a more rational use of marine space and the interactions between its uses, to balance demands for development with the need to protect the environment, and to achieve social and economic objectives in an open and planned way.

“Growth-Friendly” and Green Growth Economic RecoveryA sense of optimism for green development arose in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis with the strong commitments made by the G-20 and others to fueling the return to economic growth through environmentally-sustaining efforts such as renewable energy and innovations in industrial development. To some extent this spirit remains, and a variety of initiatives are underway. However, the momentum has been far from sufficient, as evidenced at recent global gatherings. Furthermore, considerable

uncertainty remains about the future trajectory of economic growth and development in every part of the globe. China remains the leader in economic growth, and is considered among the top nations in terms of orienting stimulus spending towards environmental matters including vital shifts towards renewable energy such as solar and wind power. Some nations such as

Korea6, the USA and Germany are making major commitments towards Green Growth strategies.

What about Oil Spills- What Did We Do?As a developing country, China is striving to clean the ocean. For example, in the Bohai Oil spill, they sent divers and remote-controlled robots to search the ocean floor to find the exact spot that the oil was spilled. They are still constantly sending robots to take sea-bed samples to monitor the ocean.

Boats As the population grew rapidly, the demand of the fishes increased as well as the number of fishermen and boats. In 1957, the government of China strived to decrease the amount of unmonitored boats.

The government also started prohibiting and finning ships illegally flying the national flag of the People's Republic of China

Additional Circumstances

333,000 Units of Account for a ship with a gross tonnage ranging from 300 to 500 tons;

For a ship with a gross tonnage in excess of 500 tons, the limitation under

For each ton from 501 to 3,000 tons: 500 Units of Account;

For each ton from 3,001 to 30,000 tons: 333 Units of Account;

For each ton from 30,001 to 70,000 tons: 250 Units of Account;

For each ton in excess of 70,000 tons: 167 Units of Account. tons:For each ton from 501 to 30,000 tons: 167 Units of Account; For each ton from 30,001 to 70,000 tons: 125 Units of Account; For each ton in excess of 70,000 tons: 83 Units of Account.

Graphs

China’s Fishing vessel statistics used for estimating the catch of Chinese distant-water

fisheries (2011 DATA)

International AgreementsNot only trying to find a better circumstances where the demands are fulfilled, China has actively made international agreements with other developing nations.

Few Examples:

Agreement on fishery co-operation between the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Republic of Argentina -2010

Agreement for technical-agriculture co-operation- 2006

Agreement on fishery co-operation in the Tonkin Gulf between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam -2000

Convention for the Conservations and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific -2000

Solutions-Increased farming of the minor fishes, but decrease of the major fishes that play a big role in the food chain-Make an restricted area of fishing -Try to encourage locals to not eat shark fin soup.-Encourage school activities where students help cleaning the water; give extra credits.

Thanks

We’re looking forward to having a wonderful conference with you guys. Let’s put our heads together and discuss solutions to save our oceans!