Values at Sea

The human impact on vast areas of the oceans remains relatively unregulated. Sometimes, in fact, the only controls over our conduct that affects marine resources lie in our environmental consclousness. However, while the field of environmental ethics has explored rights and duties for land use, stewardship, and policy, relatively little attention has been given to comparable issues of marine environments. Values at Sea constitutes an important step toward moving environmental ethics discussions into such a broader framework. Gathered here are fifteen papers by an interdisciplinary group of scholars, including ethicists, marine scientists, anthropologists, economists, geographers, lawyers, and activists. From the Great Lakes to the Pacific Islands, from the open sea to coastal areas, the papers cover a broad array of ethical issues and policy matters related to such topics as valuation of marine life, indigenous people's knowledge and environmental stewardship, endemic and exotic species, aquaculture, oil spills, and species protection. Values at Sea will refocus environmental ethics, enrich its literature, and guide policy makers and academics toward improving decisions that can affect over 70 percent of the earth's surface.