oceans have devolved into vast garbage dumps.

Even strict laws have yet to do anything to help the oceans, the paper states. Take the case of the North and Baltic seas. Although dumping into them has been illegal since 1988, the amount of waste found in these seas has still "not improved." The government also estimates that, each year, 20,000 tons of waste finds its way into the North Sea alone, primarily from ships and the fishing industry. The paper concludes that all related international agreements have been "unsuccessful."

Stuffing Waste in the 'Blue Closet'

At first glance, it might look like the European Union is doing a lot to clear the seas of waste. For example, the most recent EU directive on this issue, from July 2008, aims at guaranteeingthe "good condition" of Europe's seas by 2020. Moreover, on Tuesday, the European Commission announced its intention to set up "a dedicated agency … to tackle the underlying problems of poor implementation and enforcement of European waste legistlation."

Still, the German strategy paper doesn't put much faith in such plans. As its authors see things, it is "extremely unlikely" that an effective consensus on not polluting the oceans will emerge in the foreseeable future. In fact, the government's experts appear to believe that hammering out new international agreements is not the right way to approach the issue. Instead, they believe that the practicality of future pacts aimed at protecting the oceans should "be investigated beforehand."

In public, though, Germany's federal government assumes much less caustic tones. In April 2008, the