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  • WORLD VIEW

These rules for an ocean economy would help the whole planet

Before diving into new economic waters, establish what must be done for the land.
By
  1. Benjamin Halpern

    1. Benjamin Halpern is director of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and a professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

My office at the University of California, Santa Barbara, looks out over the coastline. The United States’ first set of offshore oil platforms dot the skyline, the source of the 1969 oil spill that started the modern environmental movement. Enormous cargo ships traverse an ocean mega-highway, bringing goods from around the world and occasionally striking and killing whales. Surfers ride waves, sailing boats head for the islands and, on clear days, the beaches crawl with sunbathers. Recreational fishers cast their lines from the pier, commercial fishers set lobster traps along the coast, and a small mussel farm is hidden below the water just offshore.

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Nature 608, 451 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02183-z

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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