1.The Oceans and the Global Environment

    Since ancient times, the human race has enjoyed the countless fish, shellfish and other bounties of theocean as a source of protein and nourishment. To effectively and appropriately use fishery resources isto protect the living resources of the sea. At the same time, I have come to believe that to protectthe living resources of the sea is to preserve the ocean environment - and to preserve the oceanenvironment is to protect the living resources of the ocean.     Among the many things pointed out in the Worldwatch Institute's "State of the World" are thelimit theory for fishery resources and the need for "resource management" for fishing operations, aswell as the fact that indiscriminate fishing is at least as serious a problem as pollution.     In the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, "harm to living resources and marine life"is the first example given in the Introduction for the deleterious effects of "pollution of the marineenvironment," and among the other examples is "hindrance to marine activities, including fishing andother legitimate uses of the sea.
    "Meanwhile, in his book entitled "The False Image of the Animal Rights Movement: Differences Between Source and Reality," Yoshito Umezaki argues that "in reality, seals, the African elephant, whales,salmon, trout and other resources are not even decreasing, much less near extinction." He goes onto say that, "In global environmental problems lies racial discrimination, the determination of theAnglo-Saxon nations to preserve their superiority."While to this reader such statements make it seem as if the author has a bit too much of a "victim complex," in some respects it is undeniable that global environmental problems involve these kinds of problems - developed nations versus underdeveloped nations and northern hemisphere versus southern hemisphere.
 

2.Living Resources and the Marine Environment

    For the past several years, the regime shift in pelagic ecosystems has been a major issue. To take sardine catches as an example, this view holds that global fluctuations in sardine catches correspond to climatic changes on a global scale. I am reminded of the postwar years, when poor sardine catches became a topic of debate in fisheries research. The United States pointed out that the problem was dueto indiscriminate fishing, and a great deal of research into resource management and analytical researchinto marine resources was conducted. More recently,the arrival of the age of 200-mile limits has made"resource management fishing" a pressing problem.However, we now know that great fluctuations in bothliving resources and ocean environments is a natural occurrence, and therefore that the use andpreservation of the ocean is not such a simple matter.The adoption at the global summit in 1992 of Agenda 21, the action plan for mankind to achievesustainable development, and the adoption of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development resultedin worldwide concern over global environmental issues, and the global environment became a major politicalissue followingthe endofthe Cold War.In Japan,this resulted in the establishment in 1993 of theBasic Environment Law to replace the Pollution Countermeasures Basic Law, and "marine pollution"was noted as one example of an area in which global environmental preservation was needed. Onthe other hand, ongoing efforts to eliminate "water quality degradation (pollutants)" are noted in theBasic Environment Plan as the concepts and points of "preserving water environments," as part of thebasic approach that these are "substances that circulate through the air, water, soil and livingorganisms." Perhaps it is time for us to consider the difference between "preserving water environments"and "preserving marine environments" and how each of these concepts should be viewed.
 

3.Marine Research

    Since ancient times, humans have lived on the shores of the ocean and sought its bounties. Bywhom, and in what manner, have the oceans been developed, studied and used? The history of marinedevelopment, exploration and research is a long one.Historically, the oceans have been used principally infour ways:(a) Originally, the oceans were a huge waste disposaltank-(leading to the phrase that literally means "let it flow into the water" but is commonlyused to mean "let bygones be bygones")The results include substance recycling and maintenance of the ecosystem.(b) The oceans were a source of reproducible living organisms, particularly for the production of livingresources(leading to the phrase "bounty of the sea")Examples include Akashi sea bream, mackerel,prawn, etc.(c) The oceans were a means of maritime shipping and transportation(Indispensable for the development of socie-ty,culture and economy)The Seto Inland Sea was a crossroads for domestic and international transportation andexchange.(d) The oceans have a major impact on meteorological and climatic changes(The "cooling function")This results in the warm climate of regions bordering the Seto Inland Sea.Academic and research fields corresponding to these uses were created: oceanography (tidology,ocean current theory, wave studies, etc.), meteorology
(maritime meteorology), biology, fisheries science,fisheries oceanography, navigation (navigational science),and so on. Coastal engineering, fisheries engineering,marine engineering and other fields came after theperiod of marine development in the 1960s. The field of coastal oceanography was also created during thisperiod, as one linking the problems of coastal development and coastal pollution (water qualitydegradation).
 

4.Ocean Development and Environmental Preservation

    In ocean development and other trends relating to the ocean both in Japan and overseas, efforts todeal with the problem of marine pollution have been underway since about 1955. Studies and measureshave focused primarily on the effect on fishing, with fishing simply understood as an economic activity.Since almost all of these problems have concerned coastal regions and enclosed coastal seas, they havebeen dealt with as "degradation of water quality,"one facet of pollution control measures. Even afterthe Basic Environment Law was established, the law seems to have simply extended the definition of inlandwater (rivers, lakes and ground water) to include "ocean water, considering the "water environment" ofthe oceans as pools of water. But this does not answ-er the question of exactly what the oceans are andwhat the preservation of ocean environments entails.We need to consider once again the significance ofthe oceans, which cover 70% of the earth's surface and have provided us with tremendous bounties,particularly the fact that they have continued to provide reproducible living resources.      The oceans are not simply pools of water. They provide us with countless "bounties of the sea." Theyhave provided a means of transporting people and products between East and West. And they providemajor regulation of weather and climate which the human race needs to survive. We must never forgetthat these oceans have their own mechanisms and ways of working.
 

5.Ocean Ecosystems and Substance Recycling

    On the subject of the production of living resources by the oceans: according to FAO materialsfor 1994, the world's fisheries catch was 100,002,000 tons. Approximately half of this fisheries productioncame from a mere 0.1% of the ocean's surface-in other words, from the upwelling areas (one famousone is located off the coast of Peru). The other half came from the coastal zones and frontal zones thatmake up about ten percent of the total ocean surface (Ryther, 1969). As a result, the closer one gets toland, the higher the productivity increases. The inland water flowing into the ocean from rivers is incorporated into the flow and circulation of the ocean tides and currents, together with the enormous quantities of substances it carries. These substances are transported,dispersed and broken down, or settle to the bottom and rise again, thereby circulating (and resulting in substance recycling). These substances are ingested by phytoplankton and zooplankton, as well as by other sea creatures in the food chain that feed onthese organisms, all the way from microorganisms to fish to whales (and birds and human beings), thuscreating an entire ecosystem. At the same time, the ocean itself also produces abundant biological resources.The reason that coastal regions and the seaweed beds and tidelands near land are so important isthat they are highly productive due to the spawning and other reproduction that actively occurs in theseareas. Within this type of system, the oceans provide a valuable function that could be called "spontaneouspurification."
      Earlier I mentioned the theory that global fluctuations in sardine catches correspond to globalclimatic changes. However, these are also related to global warming. Of the mechanisms and workingsof the ocean, one of the most important is something called "seawater circulation" (deep sealayer circulation, ocean currents, replacement of coastal and bay water, etc.) Broecker's "ocean conveyorbelt" theory is particularly well known. The time scale of this circulation of ocean water also differsdepending on the ocean region and size.