The oceans provide a truly millennial challenge for both the development and management of planet earth by humankind. Awareness of the nature and scale of this challenge, the opportunities and the limitations, has been developing over the past three decades. In particular, new approaches to the development of the law of the sea, the division of the oceans among states, and new thinking on institutions will be needed in the transition to the new millennium. Understanding of the newness of the challenges has to be underpinned by understanding of the uses of the sea in terms of major sectors, and recognition of the importance of the many regional worlds of perception, understanding and action which link the diverse ocean environment to the diversity of human culture.
Acknowledgements.- Affiliations.- Introduction.- The geography of the sea.- The law of the sea at the millennium.- Maritime boundaries.- Geography and geo-strategy of the oceans.- Maritime transport.- Offshore oil and gas at the millennium.- Fisheries.- The use of the sea for recreation and tourism.- Managing marine waste disposal.- Marine conservation and resource management.- The north Atlantic.- The Mediterranean and black seas.- Multilateral management of northeast Asian seas: problems and prognosis.- The Arctic ocean.- The Southern ocean.- Index.