ABSTRACT
Ocean protection covers activities in two types of area: within and beyond national jurisdiction. It seeks to reduce serious pressures on the marine environment, such as: overfishing, ocean acidification, climate change, and pollution. The ocean itself is a complex social-ecological system, a dense network of carbon, heat, plankton, and fish. The ocean is interconnected, thus extra-regional sources of pollution may exert significant impacts, including in polar areas. For this reason, ocean protection targets activities detrimental to the marine environment both in the ocean and on land. From a legal perspective, ocean protection is a “common concern of humankind”. The application of different legal principles and norms to different zones and resources is a challenge for ocean protection. Consequently, scholars are exploring connections between politics and policy at all levels—local, national, international, and global.
