Youna Lyons

Managing Giant Clams in the South China Sea

Tridacna gigas , the world’s largest living bivalve, could once be found on shallow coral reefs across the Indo-Pacific Region where its presence can be traced back to around 10 million years. However, following several local extinctions throughout its geographic range, its SCS population appears to have also been the subject of unprecedented overharvesting. This article discusses the obligations of littoral States of the SCS to protect and preserve this threatened resource and its habitat, to cooperate and consult with each other to that effect and act with due diligence. Given these obligations and the risk of irreversible harm and species’ extinction in the SCS , it proposes that littoral States should proceed to list the SCS population of T. gigas in the CITES Appendix I , impose an immediate ban on further harvesting pending (re-)assessment of the population, and adopt a management plan to ensure its survival and sustainable use.

The New Offshore Oil and Gas Installation Abandonment Wave and the International Rules on Removal and Dumping

With more than 7000 offshore platforms installed globally for hydrocarbon exploitation, the fate of the many platforms nearing the end of their 20–30-year commercial life becomes critical. New decommissioning regions include Southeast Asia and Western Africa, where most offshore oil- and gas-producing countries have not become parties to the 1972 London Convention against dumping nor to its 1996 Protocol. This article discusses the application of these international rules against dumping at sea to the disposal at sea of offshore platforms in these countries. It also explores the way in which relevant instruments of international law could combine to apply to the decommissioning of offshore platforms, including platforms that are light and located in shallow waters, and/or those covered by and/or supporting endangered species. Overall this article challenges the paradigm that full removal should be the primary solution to offshore decommissioning and proposes a case-by-case approach under the guiding principles of the law of the sea and international environmental law.