Rethinking the Law of the Sea - Malta's greatest resource

Applied marine research looks set to provide the instrument for promoting international co-operation following a marked European shift to a focus on regional strategies.

We must also be able to predict what the marine environment will be like in the near and not-so-near future, especially since tourism is such an important part of the Maltese economy.

Twenty-two countries with 220 million people speaking 13 languages, all living on the coast where 35 per cent of the economy is devoted to tourism and one tenth of all maritime transport passes through its waters. This is the Mediterranean.

A UNESCO offshoot set up to develop ocean monitoring and forecast aims also to upgrade national systems to the same level of expertise and infrastructure while addressing economic and social implications.

The Mediterranean Global Ocean Observing System co-operates with EuroGOOS, an informal association springing from the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, to address the specific needs of Mediterranean countries. This is MedGOOS.

In his inaugural address at a recent seminar on marine research trends Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami spoke of the important role Malta has played in the past to promote the common heritage of mankind with particular regard to seabed resources. These efforts led to a United Nations General Assembly moratorium on seabed exploration and exploitation.

"The need to protect our rich marine heritage from exploitation by national, multinational and corporate interests for short-term gains, still holds true today," he said. Monitoring the environment, he added, is essential for ensuring the long term sustainability of our national development.

Speaking on the new opportunities presented by the enlargement of the EU in May, Dr Fenech Adami said that Government was giving every importance to collaboration with Malta's immediate neighbours in the Southern Mediterranean. The idea of a common Euro-Mediterranean research space could be a "magic formula" for the future of the region.

"The Mediterranean is often viewed as a barrier between the North and South perimeters", the Prime Minister said, observing that efforts such as MedGOOS have the potential to dispel divisive perspectives while focusing instead on the unifying aspects of sharing a common sea. Twenty institutions in 17 countries give their input with Lebanon set to join MedGOOS this month.

The Prime Minister pointed out that the marine sector had been identified as a priority area for EU-Mediterranean co-operation. Particular consideration must now be given to introducing common structures for the management of the sea's extensive marine resources. He added that countries both in the North and South of the Mediterranean should have an equal say in the management of these resources.

Beyond assessing the sea's state of health, the data from ongoing research may be applied in a variety of areas, including marine transportation, safety and public health. The Prime Minister predicted that this is expected to trigger an unprecedented leap in the economic value of ocean data.

University Rector Roger Ellul Micallef noted that the close links to maritime law and marine sciences, two of the university's areas of excellence.

Sport and leisure applications

Professor John Woods, whose first visit to Malta was as dive expedition leader on the Roman shipwreck at Xlendi, spoke on Malta's potential future in the area of operational oceanography.

Originator of the idea to set up an integrated system for observing the oceans worldwide, Professor Woods launched the idea at the 1992 Earth Summit. From EuroGOOS a more specific regional focus on the Mediterranean produced MedGOOS, which started off with a network to assess and upgrade monitoring and forecasting in the region.

This network, named MAMA, was set up with the help of the European Commission and is co-ordinated by MedGOOS chairperson Silvana Vallerga.

The contribution of Malta in this initiative has already been achieved under Dr Aldo Drago as assistant co-ordinator. Dr Drago is director of Research at IOI-MOC and executive secretary for MedGOOS, which works in partnership with the Mediterranean Action Plan.

A golden era is dawning for applied oceanography with many potential customers for civil applications. Operational oceanography is not just for the oil industry but for everyone, including tourism. It encompasses everything to do with seas and oceans in every part of the globe. Collecting data on the strength and direction of currents, the action of waves near coastlines, wind force, temperature and other factors all have a bearing on our lives.

Conservation of resources such as fisheries, marine bio-diversity and coastal zones are a huge area where oceanographic operations can be applied positively. Safety at sea and security of a healthy sea are other spheres that stand to benefit from marine research and prompt availability of data.

Professor Woods referred to "the world's biggest pollution event", the deliberate release of oil into the sea during the Iraq war, intended to clog Saudi reverse osmosis plants along the coast at Bahrain and Qatar, bringing fresh water supply in the cities to a halt.

Before the oil hit, it was possible to give a precise forecast of the outcome. It was predicted that the oil would miss the desalination plants but cause enormous damage to eco-systems when it washed up on the desert coast. That is exactly what happened four days later.

Malta is in constant danger of a similar catastrophe, resulting from an accident involving one of the many large oil tankers passing through the Malta-Sicily sea channel. A contingency plan exists on paper but doubts still exist over how efficiently the plan could be put into action.

Such a plan could certainly need precise data and information from a well placed maritime observing system, and a capacity to enable marine predictions and assessments to handle such accidents.

The focus most beneficial for Malta would be to exploit the new marine technologies of the sea commercially, especially those supporting tourism, avoiding pollution, ensuring the health of the fisheries.

Worldwide the leisure industry is growing at a faster rate than any other sector and is expected to overtake the other sectors globally within the next ten years. In the Mediterranean it has already happened. Tourism is the prime economic resource in the region.

"The tourist is extremely fickle," cautioned Professor Woods. "He will go somewhere else if there is bad news. He expects unpolluted seas to swim in, fish for supper, safe yachting and diving."

Malta's small size makes it a perfect location for a demonstration site that promotes marine-related tourism services through the use of routine marine innovative observations and methods of marine predictions focusing on enhancing attractiveness for tourists.

There is also space for a major exhibition/conference showing how the environment can be cared for in a way that makes sense for the tourist industry. Malta can well develop its brand of an ecological paradise by setting up a state-of-the-art marine observing and prediction system to the advantage of excelling on its tourist industry.

A lot can be done for fisheries, which is still deemed to be "rather primitive". The Reykjavik Declaration called for an eco-system based approach in the fishing industry but "we still have to learn how to do it".

There are also many useful applications in sport. Professor Wood's experience as oceanographic adviser for sailing boats taking part in the 1968 Olympics in Acapulco provided an early example of forecasting for the sport and leisure industry.

One such potential application, which could be put to good use in local waters, is the measuring of sea surface currents by radar. The information would be valuable to racing boats, which in future are likely to be using more sophisticated navigation systems similar to the satellite system in cars, allowing optimisation of routes.

Equity-based economics

Environmental knowledge and security is becoming the way forward to improving the quality of life for citizens. EC officer Alan Edwards spoke on the importance of global monitoring for countries committed to sustainable development, which is increasingly being considered in every piece of legislation.

While there is already a lot of information, it is fragmented and not easily available. "It is no longer sufficient to collect and archive data," Mr Edwards said.

Besides operating on a global and regional scale, the greatest challenge, he added, may lie in providing information at a local level. Data has to be made useful for the citizen, industry and decision-makers.

An important next step will be to create a dialogue between users and providers of data through an advisory council. Europe has set its sights on becoming a leading knowledge based society by 2010.

With the possibility of increased funding to back this in 2007, it is hoped that Malta as a full EU member will rise to the challenge by playing an active role in this, based on the need to promote marine science in the Mediterranean. By 2007 we need to be in a position to provide these services.

Supporting the EU 6th Environmental Action Plan's call for development of a marine strategy and integrated coastal zone management is particularly important for Malta. Air pollution monitoring of sea-borne activities is also another concern which stands to be addressed.

Mr Edwards spoke of the need to establish a proper relationship with partners in the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean for free exchange and sharing of data with EU member countries. The EU Commission has highlighted the importance of the Mediterranean as a strategic area for economic activities based on equal co-operation.

Science adviser to the Prime Minister, Peter Serracino Inglott further defined Malta's role in strengthening EU-Mediterranean co-operation in the marine sector. He spoke of the special status of the region and the complexities of being bound by a sea rather than a land border.

The 1994 Euro-Med partnership, although diluted by a lateral rather than regional approach, will prove a strong basis for an upcoming ministerial meeting on the subject.

The Law of the Sea, proposed by Malta and adopted by the UN worldwide simply cannot be applied to the Mediterranean Sea since it envisions 200-mile exclusion zones unthinkable for the sea borders of Greece-Turkey or Malta-Sicily-Libya-Tunisia.

"Most of the Mediterranean is a juridical vacuum" Professor Serracino Inglott said, citing the destruction under way on the high seas with Japanese, Korean and South American boats fishing limitlessly while American submarines plundered archeological heritage outside national protected zones.

One of the main concerns is tuna fishing, where uncontrolled operators are exceeding the sustainable catch. The survival of Mediterranean fisheries may depend on developing ways of tuna breeding which respect both justice and the ecology. Poorer countries should not be deprived of catching up with the richer nations.

Following the example of France, a "conservation" rather than an economic zone has been set up to protect Maltese fisheries but the real solution appears to lie in increasing sovereign rights over the Mediterranean area.

"The Maltese government believes that only through setting up a common marine structure can a policy framework be established for the rational use of resources in a Euro-Mediterranean setting," Professor Serracino Inglott said.

Foresight

The meeting was addressed by the executive director of the International Ocean Institute of which Malta and Slovenia are operational bases in the Mediterranean. Dr I. Oliounine spoke on the role of non-governmental organisations.

Civil society represented by NGOs was invited to step in as a full player in the global decision-making arena at the 1992 Earth Summit. Broad public participation in decision-making is a prerequisite of sustainable development.

The more recent World Summit has seen an enhanced role for NGOs in the functioning of the UN with some enjoying observer status. Marine NGOs are growing in strength and represent a strong public voice with considerable political influence opposing development plans, Dr Oliounine said.

Starting next year, regular University of Malta training courses are planned, aimed at politicians and decision-makers from Mediterranean and Eastern European states. In addition to ocean governance and coastal management, the IOI looks at the need to decrease poverty and increase the role of women and youths.

Malta Council of Science and Technology chief executive officer Wilfred Kenely, chairing the second session, introduced the eFORESEE Marine Foresight Pilot Project that the Council is undertaking.

Successive presentations in the seminar were dedicated to detail targets and achievements of this initiative. The Pilot is seeking to map comprehensively the current contribution of all marine-related activity to the economy and to project this into 2020, taking into account the prospective impact of science, technology and innovation on this sector.

This foresight exercise under the leadership of Dr Aldo Drago involving a multidisciplinary team of experts aims to identify those areas with the highest economic potential and social benefit. This will result in a vision document for the marine sector in 2020.

The Pilot is also highlighting the need to enhance wealth creation through more targeted investments in marine Research, Technological Development and Innovation (RTDI). Malta's strength in exploiting awareness of economic growth in the future relies to a large extent on our biggest resource, the sea that surrounds us.

National co-ordinator of the eFORESEE project, Jennifer Cassingena Harper, from the MCST, spoke on the future of RTDI in Malta. The socio-economic aspects of Malta's marine sector were the subject of a presentation by Gordon Cordina, of the Department of Economics, at the University of Malta.

MEPA's director general Godwin Cassar described the planning authority's role in environmental monitoring. A regional perspective on fisheries in the Mediterranean related to the need for marine observations of Maltese fisheries was dealt with by Matthew Camilleri of the Malta Centre for Fisheries Sciences.

The seminar was organised jointly by the IOI-Malta Operational Centre (aldo.drago@um.edu.mt) and the MCST. It was held in conjunction with the 5th meeting of the MAMA/MedGOOS project which IOI-MOC is co-ordinating together with the International Marine Centre in Oristano, Italy.