Using Science for Better Protection of the Marine Environment

Recently there has been an increasing tendency to reduce and even ignore the role of science in protecting the marine environment. The ‘greens’ have lost patience and believe that the most effective action is to influence legislation directly whether there is a scientific basis for the case they are making or not. Brian Wynne of Lancaster University and Sue Mayer of Greenpeace in New Scientist (Wynne, B. G. and Mayer, S. (1993) even went so far as to approve a headline for their article “How Science is failing the environment”. From my 30 odd years of research on the marine environment, I believe strongly that these views are wrong. Science is still progressing and is continuing to find new methods which can be used to demonstrate effects of man’s activities on the marine environment. What is lacking is a willingness to apply these methods. The failing, I believe, is in application at managerial and political levels.