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environmentalism and marine sustainability movements that materialised later.

Benton and Short (1999) argue that the concept of sustainable development can be

traced to the resource conservationist discourse and practices. The preservationists

(contemporary conservationists) championed the creation of national parks and the

idea of protecting wilderness, by creating bounded areas where limited human

activities could take place. The preservationists connected with Romantic ideals of

wilderness and pristine nature. On the other hand, the resource conservationists were

guided by rational scientific motives. As Benton and Short note, ‘they were the heirs

of the Enlightenment; they had a belief that the environment was susceptible to

analysis and understanding and ultimately to human management that could ensure

long-term sustainability’ (1999, p. 69). Resource conservationists were some of the

first proponents of the idea of sustainable development. They held the idea that

economic development and ecological principles could together form wise use of

land. Developing a scientific approach to resource use through the establishment of

departments such as agriculture, forestry, husbandry and economics, was therefore

part of the resource conservationist’s schema (Benton & Short 1999, p. 70).

th
The institutional spaces for marine research had been developing since the 18

century when the sea was part of the global “discovery” period and scientific

knowledge building efforts. New technologies and underwater exploration practices

meant that marine biologists and explorers were exposed to not only incredible

underwater environments new to their eyes, but also to the anthropogenic destruction

of these environments. Perhaps for this reason several marine biologists became

conservationists (in the modern sense of the word), and from the 1940s played a

significant role in educating the public. Through popular books and films they shared

the discoveries of the underwater world and its beauty. Importantly, they also

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