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Regional Ocean Governance: The Perils Of Multiple-Use Management And The Promise Of Agency Diversity, Josh Eagle

Josh Eagle

The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission reports contain a range of suggestions aimed at legislatively or administratively improving current ocean management structures. In this paper, I critique one of the major recommendations common to both reports, that is, the call for “regional ocean governance.” Although each commission’s plan for implementing a regional approach is different, their rationales and design concepts are quite similar: After explaining that present institutions are too narrow in their geographic and substantive scope, the reports go on to advocate for the establishment of larger scale, more “comprehensive” management bodies. I argue …