While the surface environments of the planet Earth are dominated by the oceans, the vast majority of analytical discussions of environmental ethics address terrestrial or fresh-water environments. Efforts made to date to address marine environmental ethics have focused on particular topics, like whaling or fisheries management. Additionally, unlike the terrestrial or fresh-water environments, human impact on the oceans remains relatively unregulated. The objective of this project is to develop a holistic approach to marine environmental ethics that can contribute to improving theory and practice, as well as policy discussions in this area. The project has several phases. While investigating various problems for ethics, policy, and marine environments, an interdisciplinary group of faculty at the University of Georgia will develop a syllabus for a marine environmental ethics course in the first project phase. Since the subject is broad and new, the second phase of the project involves an intensive, three-day workshop including outside experts to refine the syllabus and develop contributions for a book on the topic. Once the course has been offered and tested, there will be a week-long workshop for college-level instructors in the areas of policy, ethics, and marine sciences who wish to incorporate marine environmental ethics into their course offerings. The investigators will also initiate day long short courses on marine environmental ethics for resource users, policy makers, and citizen groups. The combination of theoretical research, expert workshops, teaching workshops, curriculum development, and outreach to user groups will increase the body of knowledge about ethics of the marine environment. The investigators propose to develop an ethical framework that will serve as a guide to policy makers and as a basis for graduate education in marine ethics.
