Gorshkov on ocean pollution and maritime resources

Gorshkov's The Sea Power of the State treats pollution as a threat to resources on which states depend. The passage comes from a work published in Russian in 1976 and in English translation in 1979, placing environmental protection within a Cold War account of maritime strategy. It describes the 1973 convention on pollution from ships as an effort to strengthen the earlier 1954 oil-pollution agreement. Soviet conservation measures from 1960 and 1972 also appear in its account of government responsibility. A list drawn from a 1973 UNESCO publication covers radiation, oil, pesticides, metals, sewage-related pollutants, and atmospheric emissions. The explanation follows contaminants into marine organisms and food supplies, including the accumulation of radioactive substances and their movement in migrating fish. Sea power therefore depends partly on preserving the resources that maritime activity consumes or endangers.