West Coast Publishing Ocean 2014 affirmative page

Marine Reserves Aff Extensions

Topicality: Reserves and Protection Are Development

Sustainable development is a legitimate interpretation of ocean development, and includes protecting ocean life

Xinhua News, November 18, 2002

"The Development of China's Marine Programs," Xinhua News, http://news.xinhuanet.com/employment/2002-11/18/content_633178.htm

The China Ocean Agenda 21 formulated by China in 1996 put forward a sustainable development strategy for China's marine programs. The basic ideas of this strategy are as follows: To effectively safeguard the state's marine rights and interests, rationally develop and utilize marine resources, give positive protection to the marine eco-environment and realize the sustainable utilization of marine resources and the marine environment as well as the coordinated development of the work in this field.

Contextual use proves conservation is a type of development

Mithosh Joseph, Staff Reporter at The Hindu, February 8, 2014

"Reprieve for the swamps," The Hindu, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/reprieve-for-the-swamps/article5666911.ece (accessed 5/4/2014)

“As per information, the panchayat has approved and forwarded a master plan, which was formerly prepared by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM), Kunnamangalam. If this project is implemented as such, attempts may be made to dry out some portions of the vast area in the name of farming or other similar ventures, which we would strongly oppose” said T.V. Rajan, secretary of Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti. He pointed out that declaring it as a “bird sanctuary” would be a more focused intervention if the panchayat was considering conservation as development.

Management includes development

NOAA, March 25, 2014

"Coastal Programs: Partnering with States to Manage Our Coastline" U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, http://coastalmanagement.noaa.gov/programs/czm.html (accessed 5/1/2014)

Thirty-four states have approved coastal management programs that ad­dress a wide range of issues, including coastal development, water quality, public access, habitat protection, energy facility siting, ocean governance and planning, coastal hazards, and climate change.

Inherency Extensions

Misunderstanding of authority to create reserves hinders their growth

Yael Calhoun, Environmental Series Editor and author, 2009

Environmental Issues: Wildlife Protection, pp. 76-77

The authority to create marine reserves remains unclear for the vast majority of U.S. ocean waters. The National Marine Sanctuary Program provides a process for establishing reserves within a sanctuary boundary, with implementation and enforcement through existing state and federal agencies. The regional fishery management councils can restrict remoal of species within their control, but they cannot set aside an area as a closure for all species. The lack of clear authority can also be found at the state level. A notable exception is the state of California, which passed the Marine Life Protection Act to provide the governance framework for marine reserves. Other states and the U.S. federal government do not have such a blueprint, making the process for establishment of marine reserves unclear. The lack of clear authority to establish marine reserves makes their implementation as tools for ecosystem-based management more difficult. This confusion can obscure a critical point agreed on by virtually all proponents of marine reserves--that the public, as stakeholders for marine ecosystems, must be involved at the early stages of any plan to implement reserves. Without clear guidelines for where the authority to establish reserves exists, involving stakeholders becomes more difficult.

The amount of oceans actually covered by no-take reserves is pathetically small

Svati Kirsten Narula, producer of The Atlantic's National channel, April 25, 2014

"A Blueprint for Protecting the World's Oceans," The Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/04/a-blueprint-for-protecting-the-worlds-oceans/284598/ (accessed 4/27/2014)

Only 2 percent of the ocean is currently covered by some sort of MPA. (In contrast, 12 percent of the world's land is protected in national-park systems and wildlife preserves.) And only half of that 2 percent—a mere 1 percent of the ocean—is classified as "no-take," or completely closed to fishing and other extractive activity. The international conservation community has long heralded the role of MPAs in protecting ocean resources. But amid growing concern over how to save the seas from overfishing, acidification, and "dead zones," ecologists and economists are beginning to ask a fundamental question: Are these special conservation zones actually achieving anything?

MPAs are hindered by political contention and weak implementation

Svati Kirsten Narula, producer of The Atlantic's National channel, April 25, 2014

"A Blueprint for Protecting the World's Oceans," The Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/04/a-blueprint-for-protecting-the-worlds-oceans/284598/ (accessed 4/27/2014)

But thinking about conservation only in terms of percentage of area covered may not be the best strategy. In February, the marine geographer Rodolphe Devillers and other researchers published a study asserting that the majority of MPAs are "residual"—established in locations of convenience rather than in places where they could actually do good. Creating a "no-take" marine reserve sounds like a significant action, unless you choose to locate it in a corner of the ocean where no one wants to fish or drill, and where there are few species in need of protection. According to Devillers and his co-authors, this is a consequence of politics, industry influence, and the widely accepted use of "area size" as a measure of success.