Large Marine Ecosystems: Their Status and Role in Ocean Governance

Abstract

As a participant in the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission’s (ioc) annual meetings in the 1980s, I remember at one of the sessions a particularly passionate and forceful delivery by Professor Elisabeth Mann Borgese on the need to advance the legal authority for management of the oceans under the terms of the law of the sea. That memorable delivery was later shared with Professor Lewis Alexander, of the University of Rhode Island (uri), who directed the Marine Affairs Program at uri and was a longtime colleague of Professor Mann Borgese. Professor Alexander participated with her in many law of the sea conferences and workshops. As Director of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (noaa) Fisheries Laboratory at uri’s Bay Campus, I served as a guest lecturer on marine fisheries science in Professor Alexander’s seminar courses and was well aware of his expertise in law of the sea matters. It was in the course of joint study with Professor Alexander that we developed the concept of adapting the management principles from the law of the sea to the assessment and management of large marine ecosystems (lmes) defined on the basis of four ecological criteria: bathymetry, hydrography, productivity, and trophic linkages.1 Following an initial period of joint study, Professor Alexander and I convened the Symposium on Variability and Management of Large Marine Ecosystems at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (aaas) in 1984. We were invited by the aaas to prepare a peerreviewed volume of selected papers from the Symposium that was published by the aaas and serves as the seminal volume on large marine ecosystems.2