Saving the seas

This book begins with the premise that coastal seas are among the most useful and most threatened natural environments on the planet. We have used them for transportation, for fishing, and as a place to establish communities based on commerce. We have also used them as dumping grounds for sewage, chemicals and runoff from agricultural fields, suburban streets and parking lots. Precisely how coastal seas are valued - and how one might presume to "save" them - depends on one's cultural context and conceptual framework. As philosopher Mark Sagoff points out in the opening chapter, a simple cost-benefit analysis might well suggest that coastal seas are most valuable if used as sewers. Yet this answer does not satisfy most of us. Why? Why are we impelled to "save the seas"? In this volume, a diverse group of scholars creatively addresses the question of why and how we should save the world's coastal seas.