The digital frontiers of fisheries governance: fish attraction devices,drones and satellites

ABSTRACT

High seas fisheries remain one of the least transparent global production practices. Distance from shore, coupled with the highly mobile nature of fish stocks, has put attention on new monitoring, control and surveillance technologies to collect spatially referenced data on the location of fishing vessels, gears and even fish stocks and eradicate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activity. Faced with their nascent implementation, research is yet to address how these technologies are reconfiguring the roles and responsibilities of public and private actors involved in fisheries management, including who collects and controls fisheries related information. In this paper, we compare three monitoring, control and surveillance technologies that are gaining traction in fisheries; the use of private fish attraction devices in oceanic tuna fisheries, unmanned public drones for marine surveillance and global satellite monitoring of fishing vessels. In doing so, we question how different configurations of actors are structuring flows of information and with what effect on sustainability performance of high seas fisheries. We also explore how these technologies configure new (and imagined) geographies of high seas fisheries which challenge existing modes of fisheries management.     

AUTUMN CHEMISTRY OF OREGON COAST RANGE STREAMS1

ABSTRACT: During an autumn runoff event we sampled 48 streams with predominantly forested watersheds and igneous bedrock in the Oregon Coast Range. The streams had acid neutralizing capacities (ANC) > 90 μeq/L and pH > 6.4. Streamwater Na ⁺, Ca^{2 +}, and Mg^{2 +} concentrations were greater than K ⁺ concentrations. Anion concentrations generally followed the order of Cl^- > NO₃^- > SO₄^2-. Chloride and Na ⁺ concentrations were highest in samples collected in streams near the Pacific Ocean and decreased markedly as distance from the coast increased. Sea salt exerted no discernible influence on stream water acid-base status during the sampling period. Nitrate concentrations in the study streams were remarkably variable, ranging from below detection to 172 μeq/L. We hypothesize that forest vegetation is the primary control of spatial variability of the NO₃^- concentrations in Oregon Coast Range streams. We believe that symbiotic N fixation by red alder in pure or mixed stands is the primary source of N to forested watersheds in the Oregon Coast Range.     

“The Kesterson effect”

Hypothesized to be derived from Cretaceous marine sedimentary rocks, selenium contamination of the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge is traced through irrigation drainage to the source bedrock of the California Coast Ranges. This biogeochemical pathway of selenium is defined here as the “Kesterson effect.” At the refuge ponds, this effect culminated in 1983 in a 64% rate of deformity and death of embryos and hatchlings of wild aquatic birds. From the previous companion paper on irrigation drainage, the Kesterson effect has been implicated in nine of 11 reconnaissance areas studied in the western United States. Deformities have resulted in at least five of these sites. Climatic, geologic, hydrologic, and soil conditions in these reconnaissance areas are similar to those in the area surrounding Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in the west-central San Joaquin Valley of California. In California, selenium, as selenate, was ultimately found weathered with sulfur from marine sources in soluble sodium and magnesium sulfate salts, which are concentrated by evaporation on farmland soils. The Se, mobilized by irrigation drainage, is bioaccumulated to toxic levels in refuge wetland ponds that are located mainly in hydrologically closed basins and thus act as concentrating disposal points. The depositional environment of the ponds may be similar to that of the nutrient-rich continental shelf edge and slope in which Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene sediments found to be seleniferous in the California Coast Ranges were deposited. Bioaccumulation may be therefore a primary mechanism of selenium enrichment in ancient sediments in addition to that of the formerly suggested Cretaceous volcanic pathway.     

Marine Eutrophication: A Proposed Data Analysis Procedure For Assessing Spatial Trends

A methodology for the discrimination of the different trophic levels at a spatial scale in the marine environment is proposedusing spatial analysis methods and non-parametric statistics. Phytoplankton cell number, being a representative parameter to express trophic trends in the marine ecosystem is selected forthe methodology development; Saronicos Gulf, Greece is used for the case study. The proposed stepwise methodology includes interpolation for assessing the spatial distribution of phytoplankton cell number, division of the Gulf into a number of quadrates, development of a scale characterising trophic levels and finally characterisation of the trophic state ofeach quadrate using non-parametric statistics. The advantages of this methodology and the potential applications in coastal management studies are also discussed.     

浙江仇山矿区膨润土、高岭土矿石矿物地质特征

仇山膨润土矿赋存于上株罗统劳村组火山岩中，I、Ⅱ矿层为主矿层，成矿母岩为火山玻璃岩。矿石经X衍射，差热及阳离子交换量等手段测试，按其埋藏深度由浅而深依次为钙基膨润土→钠钙基膨润土→钠基膨润土→高岭土，具蒙脱石向高岭石矿物变化的地质特征。对其形成的成因机理作了分析探讨，系不同的成矿方式和介质条件所致。     

陆海统筹视域下海洋与陆地环境民事公益诉讼协同研究

海洋环境民事公益诉讼与环境民事公益诉讼系特殊与一般的关系,海洋环境问题较强的涉外属性决定了海洋环境民事公益诉讼在适格主体、管辖法院等方面存在特殊的规定,此种特殊规定不宜废除。但海洋环境民事公益诉讼与环境民事公益诉讼双轨并行的关系造成了海陆交叉污染案件存在适格主体、管辖等争议,且存在两诉协同上的挑战。导致这一问题的根本原因在于,海洋环境民事公益诉讼的受案范围限制在地理概念上的海域,这割裂了同一污染行为下陆地与海洋的联系。陆海统筹理念要求打通陆地与海洋之间的联系,以陆海一体化保护海洋生态环境。在这一理念的指导下,可对海洋环境民事公益诉讼受案范围进行陆海一体化调整,以克服陆地与海洋环境民事公益诉讼双轨并行造成的协同问题。具体而言,在海陆交叉污染案件中可以损害发生地为判断标准,当损害发生地在海洋时,则以海统陆,属海洋环境民事公益诉讼受案范围;当损害发生地在陆地时,则以陆统海,属环境民事公益诉讼受案范围。     

Ag/AgCl海洋电场探测电极研究进展

针对目前广泛应用于海洋电场传感器中的全固态粉压型Ag/AgCl电极对的极差稳定时间长,无法满足快速部署、实时探测这一要求,系统阐述了Ag/AgCl海洋电场探测电极的性能要求和制备工艺方法,对比了制备工艺的优缺点。综述了Ag/AgCl海洋电场探测电极的制备工艺优化以及改性方法,论述了近些年国内外关于Ag/AgCl电极改性的研究进展,并对Ag/AgCl海洋电场探测电极未来的研究与发展趋势进行了展望。     

A study on marine industry and environment of China: regarding Japan’s experience

China is facing the challenge of many marine environment problems with rapid economic growth. Japan had experienced similar marine environmental pressure during its industrialization and had been facing the problem through successful environment policy step by step. The paper reviews the lessons and experiences of Japan’s marine environment protection and analyzes the marine environment pollution in China and its causes, taking Shandong province as a case, such as GDP-oriented economic growth, heavy coal assumption, etc. The paper also analyzes the marine industry with focuses on coastal tourism and its relationship with marine environment. Suggestions on polices are provided based on the analysis on China’ marine environment and Japan’s experience.     

The power of environmental norms: marine plastic pollution and the politics of microbeads

Emerging environmental norms gain strength and diffuse more quickly when scientific evidence of harm is consolidating, when activism is intensifying, and when political and corporate resistance is relatively weak. The anti-microbead norm – that plastic microbeads should be removed from personal care products – has been gaining global influence since 2012; witness the upsurge in anti-microbead activism, public concern, voluntary corporate phasedowns and governmental bans. By 2018, the world was on track to eliminate microbeads from ‘rinse-off’ products within a decade, reducing microplastics flowing into oceans by 1–2%. This confirms the power of environmental norms, but how and why this phaseout is occurring – unequally across jurisdictions, with firms creating loopholes, missing deadlines and limiting the scope of reforms – also reveals innate weaknesses of bottom-up, ad hoc norm diffusion as a way of improving marine governance. These weaknesses are heightened when economic stakes are high, solutions are complex and costly, authority is fragmented across jurisdictions and corporate resistance is strong.     

Transboundary marine spatial planning: a reflexive marine governance experiment?

Because seas and coastlines are shared between states, the formulation and implementation of marine spatial planning (MSP) should be transboundary by nature. The main argument of this paper is that MSP should be organized as a transboundary policy-making process, but this is hampered by the conceptual and institutional fragmentation MSP is facing. Based on an analysis of four transboundary planning processes in different European seas, the paper gives insight into the possibilities to develop and implement transboundary marine spatial planning (TMSP). To overcome the conceptual and institutional challenges, TMSP should be developed as a reflexive governance arrangement, in which the actors involved are able to change the rules of the game and to challenge the existing (national-oriented) MSP discourses. The paper develops four forms of reflexivity (unreflectiveness; performative reflectiveness; structural reflectiveness; and reflexivity) to assess TMSP processes and to formulate conditions which are crucial to develop TMSP as a reflexive marine governance arrangement.