Image caption Kevin Keane meets Prince Albert II of Monaco in Edinburgh

Who would have thought that inspiration for protecting Scotland's seas would come from a place with one of the shortest coastlines in the world?

The Principality of Monaco, on the Mediterranean, is leading the charge and has brought its campaign to the capital.

Ruling monarch, Prince Albert II, heads the Monaco Blue Initiative and has launched his 2018 conference at the University of Edinburgh.

Oceanographers and experts from across the globe have been meeting to discuss issues from ocean acidification to plastic pollution.

The Prince recognises that the seas are making a growing contribution to world economies but wants international agreement on how to balance that exploitation with environmental protection.

He told me: "The recognition that oceans have to be taken into consideration when you consider all issues concerning the environment, with climate change at the forefront of that, I think is extremely important.

"Without a healthy ocean we cannot have a good future.

"Not only in your region but in the North Sea, scientists have done tremendous work. But I also think they can contribute further in better understanding and better knowledge gathering on not only this ocean but oceans around the world."

Image caption Three miles: Monaco's coastline is minuscule compared to the conference's host country

Scotland's coastline is more than 7,000 miles long whereas Monaco's is less than three.

But its rich inhabitants with their expensive boats give it an impressive harbour and so the connection with the sea is obvious.

Beyond the recently documented concerns about plastic pollution, the environmental impacts of and on our oceans is less obvious.

"Half of the air that we breathe is produced by the oceans and if you just want to take home that concept then that's reason enough for us to be concerned about our oceans," Prince Albert added.

With aquaculture, largely sea farming, playing such an important part in our rural economies, Scotland's has a distinct relationship with the water.

On top of that is the growing demand for renewable energy from offshore wind, wave and tidal power.

Image caption Damage was caused to an unprotected reef in Loch Carron in 2017

Professor of Climate Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Sandy Tudhope, has been leading the conference.

He said people are "joining the dots" in our relationship with the oceans.

"The ocean is there as a resource but it's also fragile. It can be damaged. I think the public is becoming much more aware of that tension between opportunity and threat.

"It's definitely about how you work together. The phrasing is a 'blue growth' agenda and it's {about} how do you actually achieve something that supports economies, supports societies, supports cultural ways of life, but also respects life in the ocean and the services it provides to us environmentally.

"They can work together but it's difficult and it's challenging."

One major focus for the conference is the implementation of Marine Protected Areas.

These designations are already being rolled out in Scotland for the protection of ecosystems and sea features but the institute wants a global inventory of MPAs and a better understanding of their impact on climate change.

Environmental groups raised concerns in 2017 when fishing gear caused damage to a rare reef in Loch Carron which was not protected.

Robert Calcagno, Chief Executive Officer at the Oceanographic Institute, said: "I think the two major threats over the ocean are over-exploitation and pollution. Over exploitation is overfishing but it's also oil and gas. We need to use the ocean but we need to do it in a sustainable way."</s>The UK has joined a global battle to safeguard the world’s coral reefs from climate change and rising sea temperatures, Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey announced today.

International work to protect these vital marine habitats is gathering momentum as coral reefs come under increasing pressure from climate change and human activity – and today the UK officially joined the Coral Reef Life Declaration, committing to safeguard coral reefs and bolster scientific research into the threats they face.

The announcement comes just one week ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where member states will gather in London to agree further global measures to protect our oceans.

From Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef, to 8,000 year-old cold-waters corals off the coast of the UK, the countries of the Commonwealth account for nearly half the world’s coral reefs – and over 250 million people across the Commonwealth depend directly on coral reefs for food and income.

Speaking from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, where High Commissioners and members of the UK’s science community gathered today to celebrate marine science across the Commonwealth, the Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said:

Few people know the waters around the UK contain riches to rival the tropics – with our waters home to a vast array of cold water coral reefs that protect important marine life. Through tapping into the UK’s world-leading marine science and working with our partners across the Commonwealth, we will help to safeguard this vital habitat and protect our oceans for future generations.

The Coral Reef Life Declaration was launched by Prince Albert II of Monaco at the Our Ocean conference in Malta in October last year to encourage countries to come together to protect coral reefs. So far 12 countries have signed the declaration, including Australia, Fiji and the Seychelles.

The UK’s waters are home to cold-water corals over 8,000 years old, with the only known coral reef in English waters protected as a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ).

The Canyons MCZ, located off the Cornish coast, covers an area of more than 650 km2 and was designated in 2013 to protect the cold-water corals found there. There are also extensive reefs off the west coast of Scotland where there are seven Marine Protected Areas safeguarding this fragile habitat from damage.

The UK’s Overseas Territories also hold a huge array of tropical and cold water coral reefs. Through our Blue Belt programme we are currently on track to protect over four million square kilometres of ocean across the Overseas Territories by 2020, working with local communities to protect the coral species within.

This year has also been made the International Year of the Reef by the International Coral Reef Initiative – the leading organisation dedicated to protecting these habitats.</s>More than 10 years and one week ago this newspaper published my first Our Ocean Backyard column. The topic was salmon. My friend, Gary Griggs of the Institute of Marine Sciences, agreed to alternate writing duties with me every other week, and off we went. When we started we discussed whether there would be enough information to sustain the column but today, there are topics, for good and for bad, to keep us in a sea of words for years.

I wrote last time about the growing problem of plastic pollution, which was highlighted at the 6th annual International Marine Debris Conference in San Diego, sponsored by the United Nations and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and attended by more than 700 people from countries around the globe.

The movement to research and stem plastic pollution has grown since Charles Moore, a Long Beach resident, first discovered it while returning from Hawaii to Southern California on his boat in 1997.

At the time there was discussion of two large “garbage patches” floating in the Pacific, but the reality was more like a plastic soup, with plastic breaking down through a process known as photo degradation where sun, wind and moving salt water break it down to smaller pieces that retain their synthetic polymer structure for many years, doing damage over that time.

Today there is a plastic pollution problem in the great gyres of the world ocean, 80 percent of the trash found there came from land.

In 2014, a global study lead by the 5 Gyres Institute found estimated that there are 5.25 trillion pieces, or nearly 269,000 tons, of plastic in the ocean. There are also concerns that they are ingested by marine life, thereby carrying toxins that can concentrate as they move through the food web.

Much of the research presented at the international marine debris conference last month highlighted the trend that plastics are getting smaller and more ubiquitous throughout the marine environment from the ocean surface, through the water column, on the sea floor and in wildlife.

One conference abstract, on the chemistry of plastic marine debris, said: “When (it) enter(s) the environment, plastic undergoes physical, chemical and biological weathering which decreases its size via fragmentation and alters its original shape, chemical composition and surface characteristics.” Another, on the effects of small plastic particles on fish and invertebrates, said: “Microplastic pollution has been identified in habitats and animals, in both freshwater and marine ecosystems, from all over the world.”

Tiny, sometimes microscopic, pieces of plastic would be difficult, and expensive, to remove from the marine environment without also capturing large amounts of by-catch. Activists who are fighting the problem world-wide have focused on eliminating single-use plastic, such as bags, straws, disposable coffee cup lids, plastic utensils and other products which can be carried by water or wind to the ocean after often less than a day of service.

Another effective tactic is intervention to remove debris before it reaches the ocean by conducting beach cleanups. Worldwide more than 500,000 volunteers removed 16 million pounds of trash in 91 counties on a September day in 2014. While cleansing the ocean of plastic debris is becoming an increasingly unlikely proposition, eliminating the input of plastic into the marine environment is a feasible, and desirable, enterprise.

Dan Haifley is executive director of O’Neill Sea Odyssey. He can be reached at dhaifley@oneillseaodyssey.org.
Prince Albert II of Monaco arrives in Edinburgh to launch an international conference of oceanographers and environmental experts to discuss the global marine environment, including oceanic acidification and plastic pollution, as well as the local creation of Marine Protected Areas in Scotland.