12. As we have seen, surveillance is a tool for better management of the ocean environment. In the new "Securing the Oceans" concept where we are holistically managing a comprehensive security for all aspects, uses, users, resources and denizens of the ocean it is important to detect quickly and predict in time changes in a broad spectrum of marine phenomena that affects: -

　

13. The scope of any new surveillance system will also have to be enlarged to encompass a wider swathe, yet coordinated and combined to be beneficial to more users and for more uses. In yesteryears the main form of surveillance was concerned with national security and sovereignty. Nations empowered their navies and Coast Guards or Marine Police to patrol the oceans in ships and aircraft to protect national integrity and to enforce laws and prevent violations, such as trespass and clandestine activities by anti national elements or enemies of the state, drug running, smuggling, human trafficking and poaching. In a new system the same forces may also be used in anti terrorist or anti piracy roles, or for other activities such as monitoring traffic separation lanes or compliance by ships to safety regulations, or monitoring the fish catch or taking physical observations of wave, currents, salinity, temperature etc. etc. This would therefore amount to Integrated Maritime Enforcement. Since the keyword to the new concept is cooperation and coordination, surveillance will also have to be coordinated and results shared with other department or agencies, and with other countries. Thus there would be economy of effort, economy of costs, better results from more inputs into prediction models and greater efficiency.

　

14. Physical patrolling is a form of surveillance to ensure compliance to regulations and involves inspections. This requires physical boarding and inspection of ships and fishing vessels to determine the fish catch, or compliance to SOLAS, Port State Control, MARPOL, ISPS Code, etc. as also enforcement of Marine Protected Areas. This is generally done by the Coast Guard /Marine Police/Navy. Physical patrolling could also be coordinated with other countries, so that the big bug bear of sovereignty would not pose a problem when dealing with law breakers, pirates or terrorists. Disputes on the right of hot pursuit would not arise in coordinated patrols and hence should be encouraged. However many countries are wary about joint or coordinated patrols. Such patrols by India with Indonesia and Sri Lanka appear to be working well. Since national or military security is an important element of the new concept, I would take surveillance a step further, so as to monitor actions and statements of countries and leaders where tension is building up so that the Ocean managers across the region or the globe can put their heads together and take action to diffuse a tense situation and develop confidence building counter-measures.

　

15. Besides patrolling by aircraft and ships a very large part of surveillance is monitoring pollution levels in the sea from ships or landbased sources as also measuring data of the sea, its contents and the coasts. Monitoring the Ocean phenomena means monitoring the deep ocean and the coastal ocean (i.e. upto the continental shelf or 200 miles). Monitoring the coastal ocean includes offshore and onshore areas since much of the seas are influenced by the coastal habitats, wetlands and shore infrastructure.

　

16. The environment has no boundaries or limits. Therefore its management cannot be limited to national boundaries. The causes of various phenomena may originate in one area but be effected across many boundaries. This once again stresses the requirement for integrated management within and among countries. The surveillance, monitoring and observations will therefore also have to be a cooperative effort among all countries in a region or for some phenomena such as climate change, among countries around the globe. Similarly, observations have to be taken across a region or the globe and shared among countries. Ocean observations would consist of mid-ocean and coastal ocean observations. Ocean observations would also affect climate/meteorology and terrestrial areas. Therefore, the ocean observations must be shared with the meteorology and climate organisations, and they in their turn must share observations with the ocean organisation. Thus observations will have to be coordinated so that they are in a format, which is readily usable by various users and organisations. Presently many countries, institutions and government/non government organisations have been making observations of phenomena of interest in the past years. However, as mentioned earlier, these observations are limited to particular areas of interest depending on the country's predominant activity or problem. Observing organisations are generally existent in the advanced countries with little or no observations done in the developing countries. Except for a few countries most of the equipment and technology is outdated. A new global organisation would have to assimilate such existent organisations in any new dispensation.

　

17. The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) has been developed by the IOC (International Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO) advised by the joint IOC - WMO - UNEP Inter Governmental Committee for GOOS (I-GOOS). It is planned as an operational global network that systematically acquires and disseminates data and data products on past, present and future states of the marine environment. GOOS has been supported by various international agreements and together with the physical patrolling organisation meant for national security and safety requirements is well suited to meet the surveillance requirements for our new concept. Intergovernmental agreements that provide the legal basis for GOOS or stipulate national obligations for cooperation include (a) the 1982 UNCLOS, (b) Regional Seas Conventions, (c) the Jakarta Mandate, (d) the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, (e) the Global Plan of Action on Land Based Sources of Pollution, (f) the SOLAS Convention, (g) the Second World Climate Conference, and (h) the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro.⁶ GOOS was mandated and ratified in 1992 with the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Convention on Biodiversity and the Programme of Action for sustainable Development or Agenda 21.

　

18. GOOS is one component of the Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) that also serves the space agencies through the Committee on Earth Satellites (CEOS), the Integrated Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). Besides GOOS, the IGOS comprises the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS), World Weather Watch (WWW) and the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW).⁷ The main advantage of GOOS is that all countries are brought to a common platform, and are given modern equipment and personnel training. Hence even the less developed countries can participate on an equal footing.

　

19. GOOS consists of two modules - a global ocean module dealing mainly with the ocean climate system, and a coastal module COOP (Coastal Ocean Observations Panel) dealing with large scale changes in the ocean climate system and of human activities on coastal ecosystems, as well as improving marine services. Thus it can be seen that GOOS is a totally integrated system - the old with the new, and linked horizontally across to the climate, meteorological and scientific research organisations. It is collaboration among government ministries, agencies, regional bodies and existing research and monitoring programmes. Non government organisations, institutions, universities and individuals are part of this system. The long term goal is to develop GOOS as a global, public-oriented service with the active contribution of different segments of society, including the private sector. For this, the economic benefits in terms of public and private services and products for environment, societies and economies have to be demonstrated, e.g. products for industry and tourism. This may help make GOOS self sustaining in a way. Weather, Climate and Ocean forecasts are used in operations and strategic planning of the Energy, Health, Tourism/Leisure, Transportation and Finance (risk rating, weather derivatives, environmental evaluation for managers) sectors. The initial Ocean Observing system is operational. Some regional GOOS such as EURO GOOS, BOOS and NEAR GOOS are operational. The Coastal GOOS is still in the formulation of the implementation stage, which is expected to be accepted at the next IOC General Assembly.

　

20. The global coastal network will come into being through a combination of national regional and global processes. Some elements of the system will be global in scale from the start, (such as GLOSS (Global Sea Level Observing Systems) and observations from space), but national and regional coastal observing systems will be the foundations of the coastal module. GRAs (GOOS Regional Alliances) are recommended to share with national GOOS programmes, Regional Seas programmes, Regional Fisheries Bodies, Large Marine Ecosystems programmes, etc.

　

21. The crux of the GOOS and especially COOP are the Phenomena of Interest. We need to predict the changes in these phenomena on the bases of sets of variables. Some variables will be common for different phenomena of interest and therefore need to be grouped accordingly. There has to be an objective procedure for selecting the variables which when measured globally best serve to describe the present sate and predict changes in the coastal ocean. The phenomena of interest can be grouped as follows :-

　

22. The common variables are selected using a systematic process based on a procedure that addresses the needs of the users, based on the experiences of a wide range of scientists. The aim is to identify the maximum number of variables that must be measured to detect and predict changes that are important to the maximum number of user groups. These variables as ranked in the GOOS Report No 125 totalled to 36, the first few of which in ranked order are as follows: -

　

23. The elements of the regional and global observing system are linked to form an integrated system. These elements are: -

　

24. The sensors fitted on buoys, drifters, satellites and various platforms are state of the art, and are able to sense variables rapidly and to a high degree of sensitivity. Therefore even remote sensors such as infra-red sensors, synthetic aperture radars and HF radars on satellites and fixed platforms are able to measure temperature, salinity, water sediments, pollutants, wind, waves, penetration of sunlight, sea level, currents with fairly good accuracy.⁸ GOOS has an initial budget and each year countries have been given a certain number of the latest buoys, drifters, underwater Argo buoys, radars and other sensing equipment.

　

25. It may be seen that the observations obtained through GOOS are voluminous. More the readings better the predictions when applied to models. Modern computer techniques are extremely helpful in these respects, though for such vast amounts of information, even normal computing power is inadequate and special hierarchical networks distributed nationally, regionally and internationally are required. High speed data communications are also an asset. Observations and predictions are then analysed and fed to managers and other horizontal organisations. This integration is aimed to establish a global international governance structure. Good data management is a vital link in the system, in view of the requirement of timely and hi-fidelity observations. This integrated data management system permits users nationally and internationally to exploit multiple data sets to facilitate exchange of use in applications. It aims to establish a global international governance structure.

　

26. Besides the Surveillance and Observing systems, there are a few other systems, which may not be so vast, but are important with respect to the concept. These are discussed in the paragraphs below.

　

27. Education. This is a vital facet of the concept as it holds the key to population, awareness, political will and self discipline. Environment education is sadly lacking without adequate colleges and seats of learning. Environmental organisations should ensure adequate facilities, especially for environment administrators, managers, recorders and researchers. Additionally, the developed countries should arrange such education and training for personnel from the less developed countries. A strategy has to be worked out for building environmental awareness perhaps in partnership with the print and electronic media.

　

28. Research and Development. Environment is a science intensive subject with vast areas still not touched by human study. As such there is great scope for new discoveries and techniques for conservation and protection of the environment, control of pollution and ecologically sustainable development. There is also much scope for new finds, such as resources and medicines, and new ways to harness ocean, waves, tides, ocean depths and wind energy. Like all other ocean systems there has to be cooperation even more in research and development, science and technology especially for the developing countries, which should be included in training programmes and given access to advance facilities in the developed countries. Some oceanographic laboratories need to be set up in the developing world.

　

29. Finance. In any organisation or programme, money is the main factor that makes for success. Large amounts of money are transacted in marine goods and services but not enough is cycled into environment. Further ecologically sustainable development means added expenditure for individuals, industries and governments. It means pollution treatment plants, new expensive technologies, expensive substitutes to reduce greenhouse gases and CFCs, denial of coastal construction and development that has an adverse environment impact assessment (EIA). Ways and means have to be worked out to make environment organisations self supporting. There should be encouragement for private sector partnership and environment/ocean foundations. Regional and Global meetings must make provisions for funds especially from the developed countries to developing countries. The environment is so important that if aid is not forthcoming governments would have to make adequate budgetary provisions. The success of sustainable development mainly rests on adequate funding.

　

30. Legal. All environmental activities are the subject of agreements and conventions, rules and regulations at national and international levels. All these conventions and agreements have to be converted into laws of the state to help enforcement and prosecution if required. This is a weak area in most countries. When the pirated Japanese ship "Alondra Rainbow" was captured by the Indian Coast Guard and Navy, the Japanese authorities declined to take over the case as there was no suitable law in Japan to do so. In fact India charged the pirates as per the Admiralty Offences (Colonial) Act of 1849 and the Admiralty Jurisdiction Act of 1860. Not only must conventions and agreements be enacted into laws but also that all laws concerning the oceans should be consolidated into an Ocean Act. This could be a standard Act which could be enacted by all countries, rather than each country trying to draft its own Ocean Act which could take many years. The world body should draft the Act. Further all activities have legal implications and are often the subject of disputes. Environment and biodiversity being areas, which do not adhere to national boundaries, causes frequently, arise in one national jurisdiction and take effect in another. If there is cooperation in legal matters, problems would be sorted out in an atmosphere of justice and amity. It would go to make for more efficient ocean governance.

　

31. Social. Society at large is an important factor in building social and political Will and awareness. The community especially the indigenous coastal community has a role in compliance with regulations and should be involved in decision making. The concept of Ocean clubs in schools, colleges and in every town will ensure awareness and ocean supporters in every walk of life. Clean, safe, healthy and sustainable oceans should not be a result of policing, but rather from concern, responsibility and self-discipline.

　

32. The new "Securing the Oceans" concept, is a comprehensive security concept, which by looking at implementation of Ocean governance from a security standpoint sees it as a potential force for improving the security of all nations. In this concept all aspects of ocean management are addressed and integrated. Environment management involves a strategy of ecologically sustainable development through a Plan of Action based on the policy. The regulations are laid down and enforced through surveillance and inspection to ensure compliance and safety. Navies/Coast Guards/Maritime police also carry out surveillance to ensure national security and safety of shipping from piracy and terrorists. Monitoring is also done on those crucial factors, which may cause tension in order that the same could be reduced. Management actions are constantly evolving to meet the changing situations. These changes are monitored through a Global Ocean Observing System. This system integrates the old and new systems, and interacts horizontally with other departments and organisations internally and in other countries of the region and the globe. GOOS is a detailed system designed by the I-GOOS to monitor variables in the phenomena of interest. The results are also shared with other climate change and meteorological organisations. Thus surveillance is an important tool of Ocean governance. Other systems for implementation of the new concept are Education, Research and Development, Finance, Legal and Social. All these systems combinedly ensure a comprehensive and total security for the Oceans, so that people can live in peace i.e. that condition in which people can fulfill their various desires as human beings.