a n o v e r v i e w o f m a r i n e a n d c o a s t a l p o l i c y（n o v e v i e w o f m r i n e n d c o s t l p l c y）（8页）.docVIP

INTRODUCTION TO MARINE POLICY Prof. Wlodzimierz M. Kaczynski* School of Marine and Environmental Affairs UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Seattle, WA, January 6, 2014 INTRODUCTION Marine Policy has become increasingly important to most maritime nations. The relative significance of the ocean affairs (Marine Affairs) and related Marine Policies have all been growing: merchant marine in transportation, offshore as related to onshore exploitation of resources, fishing as related to agricultural affairs; shipbuilding and a general industrial development, naval in military affairs, and the law of the sea in international law. Collectively, Marine Affairs is at least as important as the sum of these separate aspects of marine/maritime affairs. The inter-discipline of Marine Affairs is one which cuts across natural and social sciences, humanities and law. The field is shaped primarily by the conditions in the external world affecting human use of oceans and coastal regions, the conflicting values of the participants, and the institutional arrangements governing those uses. Most Marine Affairs problems involve institutional imperfections or “failures”. Governance failures include ill-defined national priorities, the incomplete integration of the action of public agencies operating under separate authorities, and distortions in profit generation or wasteful “rent seeking” on the part of stakeholders. Market failures include oil spills, nutrient runoffs leading to eutrophication in coastal seas, and over-fishing of commercial fish stocks as well as destruction of coastal landscape, among others. Even in the absence of technically defined institutional deficiencies, problems may arise when decisions allocating funds to develop marine resources or use rights are perceived to be unfair or mistaken Any discussion of Marine Policy should take into account a complex set of factors that affect it and these are, in part, introduced to readers. This study’s objective is