Ocean management futures

One where fish are caught **no faster than they breed and replace themselves**, so the stock survives for the future.

Catching fish **faster than they can breed**, so the stock shrinks and may collapse.

The catch that can be taken each year **without shrinking the stock** — it equals what the stock replaces.

A **legal limit** on how much of a species may be caught, keeping catches below the replacement rate.

**Farming** fish or shellfish in pens, ponds or cages instead of catching wild stock — it takes pressure off wild fisheries.

A zone of ocean where fishing and other activities are **restricted** to let life and habitats recover.

Bigger net holes let **juvenile fish escape** so they can breed before being caught, replacing the stock.

To protect **biodiversity**, enable **research**, support **ecotourism**, block oil/gas extraction, and allow **spillover** to restock nearby fisheries.

The **Galapagos Marine Reserve** (Ecuador), the **Great Barrier Reef Marine Park** (Australia), or the **Ross Sea region MPA** (Antarctica).

Healthy stocks protect **biodiversity** and keep ocean **food chains** intact, supporting the whole ecosystem.

Secure **jobs, income and protein** for coastal communities — benefits that last because the stock lasts.

**Successes AND limitations**, a **named MPA**, reference to alternatives + stakeholder conflict, and a clear **justified judgement**.

A state's legal right to **control its own territory**, including the sea near its coast.

The sea out to **200 nautical miles** from the coast, where the state owns all the **resources** (fish, oil, gas, minerals).

**12 nautical miles** from the coast, where the state has near-full sovereignty.

The **UN Convention on the Law of the Sea** — the treaty defining maritime zones and the rights states have in each.

**Non-living** resources of the sea — **oil, gas and seabed minerals** — the focus of resource conflict.

A **narrow strait** that a large share of world trade must pass through (e.g. Hormuz, Malacca).

The **Strait of Hormuz** — about 21 million barrels a day from the Gulf.

Several states' **EEZs overlap** around the **Spratly/Paracel** islands, which hold oil, gas and rich fishing on a major route.

Melting ice opens access to **seabed oil, gas and minerals** and new shipping lanes, so states submit rival continental-shelf claims.

Tankers cross narrow chokepoints in others' waters, so a state can **threaten to close** a strait (e.g. Hormuz) as leverage.

A collision or grounding causes an **oil spill** that ocean currents spread, killing marine life over a wide area.

Both sides, accurate terms (EEZ, UNCLOS), **named cases** (South China Sea, Arctic, Hormuz) and a justified judgement.