Resources

Gulf of Maine Library Collection

The State of the World’s Oceans According to United Nations Environmental Program: New Ways Forward For the Gulf of Maine. John B. Pearce. 10 pp.

As local or regional action plans and strategies are developed to prevent damage and mitigate present and past pollution issues, it is important to turn to the specific and generic results of research and monitoring carried out in other parts of the world. The Gulf of Maine was, as of 1989, a more-or-less pristine marine habitat suffering relatively few effects from marine pollution; other coastal seas of the world were not so fortunate. The effects of pollution and development in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other regions of North America were often intense and wide-spread; understanding the issues and problems in these waters would have aided in solving the principal Gulf of Maine habitat degradation issues. This resource comments of the work done by the Group of Experts on Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution, whose drafted State of the Marine Environment Report was to be published by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). The report was based largely on several UNEP Regional Seas Reports. This document presents the state of the world’s oceans according to these reports in an effort to aid the Gulf of Maine Council in their efforts towards a healthier GOM.

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