Industrious coast
Our oceans and coastal landscapes are home to a huge array of industries competing
for the use of the sea. These range from fishing, aquaculture, coastal tourism, maritime
transport and extractive industries such as oil and gas and marine aggregates.
With so many industries vying for the
right of coastal and/or marine space, a
massive challenge for the proposed EU
Integrated Maritime Policy will be to
address those competing uses of the sea
in a way that ensures a sustainable
future.
Mineral extraction and
construction
Mineral extraction from the seabed is
big business. The UK’s marine
aggregate industry alone provides
around 20 million tonnes of sand and
gravel each year for construction uses
in the UK and Europe. Primarily used
to manufacture concrete, it is also used
for general building and in beach
replenishment.
The construction industry is
responsible for an incredible 40 per
cent of global greenhouse gas
emissions and demand for building
and construction continues to grow.
Coastal construction remains as
popular as ever, even though the
associated effects of climate change
(storms, flooding, erosion) continue to
hit the coast the hardest.
6 The edge Winter 2008
For the construction industry,
addressing its huge impact, in terms of
emissions, on climate change and the
materials used in construction will be
important for the future. There are
small signs that some areas of the
industry are making progress. The
‘Make it Right’ project, for example,
supported by movie star Brad Pitt, is
now rebuilding 150 coastal homes in
New Orleans following the devastation
caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005
utilising the most sustainable
construction practices possible.
Sebastien Dupray from HR
Wallingford discusses the impact of
climate change on materials used in
both natural and man made
structures on page 14.
Marine renewables
Marine renewables, in the form of
wave, tidal and wind energy, have the
potential to contribute significantly to
worldwide energy demand.
With climate change concerns
reaching a critical mass, the pressure
on marine spatial planning to
accommodate demand from this
sector is likely to grow significantly in
future years. Projects, such as the one
led by the Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI), to quantify and
spatially map the potential wave, tidal
and offshore wind resource at a
regional scale across the UK
Continental Shelf, should help to
assist decision makers in licensing
marine renewable technologies.
Offshore oil and gas
Sixty per cent of the world’s petroleum
production comes from global offshore
operations. The International Energy
Agency in its World Outlook series
predicts world energy demand will
increase by up to 50 per cent by 2030
and with such an increase in energy
demand, offshore operations are
moving into deeper waters, some
reaching depths of over 8,000 feet.
This continues to have impacts on the
marine environment as demand
makes extraction in less accessible
places a profitable concern.
Shipping and ports
Carbon emissions from shipping,
traditionally seen as small in
comparison to other forms of
transport, are growing fast although
these are not yet included in the
Ship building
Kyoto Protocol and remain largely
unregulated. According to a recent
report in The Independent, the global
shipbuilding industry is “in the midst
of its biggest boom ever with the
numbers of tankers and bulk carriers
expected to increase by 50 per cent by
2012”.
There seems little indication that the
shipping industry, and by association
ports, will do anything other than
grow over the new few years. This is
not surprising given that ships and
tankers (around 90,000 in total)
currently transport over 90 per cent of
all goods traded worldwide.
The International Maritime
Organisation gives its perspective
on shipping on page 8.
Tourism and leisure industry
Tourism is one of the largest industries
in the world and the coastal zone is, for
many countries, the focus of their
tourism industry. Climate change and
its associated impacts: increased
storminess, flooding, sea level rise,
heatwaves and coastal erosion will all
have an impact on the coastal
landscape and the tourism industry.
Some small island states, almost wholly
dependent economically on tourism,
are particularly at risk from the threat
of climate change.
Coastal tourism also presents an
opportunity to engage the public on
issues related to the marine and coastal
landscape. Marine conservation has
typically been a focus, but increasingly
more integrated issues, such as the
impact of climate change and coastal
industry on the oceans, as well as the
part lifestyle choices can have on both,
are being explored.
Paul Cox, from the National Marine
Aquarium in Plymouth, UK discusses
marine interpretation in this wider
context. On page 12.
Fishing
Overfishing, pirate fishing, quotas,
marine protected areas, sea pollution
and now global warming are just
some of the absolutely crucial issues
surrounding the fishing industry today.
With more than 75 per cent of all
fisheries either fully exploited or
heading for meltdown according to a
report by the UN Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), the long suffering
marine fishing industry in 2002 still
represented 63 per cent (84.4 million
tonnes) of total world fish production.
What has changed is the increasing
share of world production by marine
and inland water aquaculture.
Aquaculture
By 2004, according to the UN FAO’s
State of world fisheries and Aquaculture
2006, aquaculture accounted for
approximately 43 per cent of total world
fish production. The same report also
put the aquaculture industry as the
fasting growing animal food-producing
sector, with a worldwide average growth
rate of 8.8 per cent per year since 1970.
China is by far the largest region,
accounting for nearly 70 per cent of
total production in 2004, but there are
many other countries that have begun
to develop an aquaculture industry.
One such country is Nicaragua and
Agnés Saborío Coze, Director of
the Centre of Aquatic Ecosystems
Research, takes an historic look at the
development of sustainable shrimp
farming in Nicaragua. See page 10.
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