Mediterranean Metaphors: Travel, Translation and Oceanic Imaginaries in the 'New Mediterraneans' of the Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

Steinberg, P.E.

Abstract

This chapter provides a background to coral reef environments. It explores how they are a sign of global ocean health the proverbial canary in the coal mine' investigating the ways in which such ecosystems have been threatened, driving a growing conservation rhetoric to protect them. The chapter explores Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as a key conservation strategy, tracing the challenges in attempting to manage these vulnerable areas due to competing science claims alongside socio-cultural and contextual differences in the geographies of reef systems. It then suggests an alternative way in which to assess the conflictual narratives underscoring conservation of reef systems, using Q methodology. The chapter presents results, finding trends of consensus and difference in how such ocean environments are imagined and understood, before noting how this links to the real-world management of the coral reef ecosystem. The symptoms of environmental deterioration are in the domain of the natural sciences.

Citation

Steinberg, P. (2014). Mediterranean Metaphors: Travel, Translation and Oceanic Imaginaries in the 'New Mediterraneans' of the Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. In J. Anderson, & K. Peters (Eds.), Water Worlds: Human Geographies of the Ocean (23 - 37). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315547619

• Publication Date: 2014
• Deposit Date: Jan 25, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 16, 2024
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 23 - 37
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Book Title: Water Worlds: Human Geographies of the Ocean
• Chapter Number: 2
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315547619
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1649884