ABSTRACT
The ocean commons is particularly difficult to manage. It is hard to monitor what is done in this vast and often unfriendly space, owned by no state, and far from view. Given this difficulty, international institutions managing maritime issues have done a surprisingly effective job of changing the way ships are built and operated. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has overseen a wide range of international agreements that have led to increased safety on and decreased pollution from ships. The obligations that United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) creates within specific ocean issues are normative and often vague, and generally require that states participate in existing institutional structures for governance. Institutional arrangements to conserve fisheries were among the earliest efforts to protect natural resources internationally. Ocean regulation has focused primarily on the different activities namely shipping, pollution, fishing affecting the oceans, often further subdivided in the case of fishing by species or geography.
