On the morning of April 22nd, Mr. Evan Bloom, the Director of the Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs at the U.S. Department of State visited Xiamen University and delivered a lecture on “The Maritime Policies and Law of the United States” to our students and faculty members from law school. Vice Dean Professor Zhu Yansheng of Law School presided over the lecture.
During the 1.5 hour lecture, Evan Bloom introduced the established Sino-US ties and the current cooperation concerning maritime policies between the two sides. He also outlined the staple priority of U.S. towards oceans protection.
Evan Bloom warned that it is estimated that there will be one ton of plastics from every three tons of that we fish, given that the numerous unsolved problems continue to prevail the fishing industry, i.e. nearly 30 percent fishing grounds suffer from over fishing, and the output value of the illegal and ill-formed fishery accounts for billions of dollars.
Evan Bloom proposed that concerted efforts should be made by all the countries to protect the ocean and establish the relevant protection mechanisms explicating how to explore the ocean and avoid the pollutants discharge into the sea. Last year saw the establishment of the partnership concerning co-management over maritime issues between China and the United States. In 2016, U.S. will make more investment related to oceans and optimize the utilization way of maritime resources. As the two biggest economic powers, Evan Bloom hopes that, China and US would continue to deepen our cooperation through friendly dialogue in order to benefit the two peoples and the world.
Evan Bloom is Director of the Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs in the Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Sciences, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. He supervises the Department’s foreign policy efforts related to oceans and Arctic and Antarctic.
Mr. Bloom joined the State Department in 1991. He has worked on oceans and polar matters for most of his career, helped develop the U.S. Government’s National Ocean Policy and Arctic policies, and played a central role for the United States in the establishment of the Arctic Council. Hi is co-chair of the Arctic Council’s Task Force on Science Cooperation, and co-chaired its Expert Group on Ecosystem-Based Management.
Journalist Cao Yijie
Translated by Linda Dong
