Thirty-four experts on marine affairs and the law of the sea, from six continents, examine the emerging challenges for our World Ocean. The accumulating consequences of human activities on the seas indicate that the Earth may already have entered a new epoch, the Anthropocene, dominated by the human impact. This volume analyses developments in the interface of law, technology and science in some central law-of-the-sea issue-areas. These are explored systematically in sections on the World Ocean in the Anthropocene epoch (Part I); combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (Part II); combatting illegal oil spills from ships (Part III); marine genetic resources and bioprospecting (Part IV); and the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines (Part V).