ABSTRACT
The importance of the oceans to the welfare and even the survival of mankind in other than economic terms are all too often overlooked in the day-to-day approach to ocean affairs. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was a response of world governments to mounting public pressure and a worsening crisis, many of the symptoms of which had manifested themselves in the oceans. The negligence of a matter so vital to our interests is suicidal and shows the gulf that separates the politico-legal reality from the stark reality that is the planetary environment. The realization that there is a mounting threat to our survival has been a slow process and is only now being seen for what it is. The politico-legal regime, cushioned as it is in fossilizing institutions, is little affected by the environmental reality. The lawmakers and the politicians must be made to recognize the reality beyond their rarified regime.
