In a speech at a Side-Event to the United Nations Oceans Conference in June 2017, Karmeau Vella, the European Commissioner for the Environment, Marine Affairs and Fisheries, posed the question: ‘[w]hy do we need an ecosystem approach?’ His answer was simple: ‘[b]ecause our future depends increasingly on our capacity to manage the accumulation of human activities; our capacity to take account of all the ways the oceans are used and their impacts; our capacity to ensure that the health of the oceans, their productivity and selfrepairing capacity is not undermined’. In Vella’s opinion it is now ‘impossible to look into conservation and sustainable use of the oceans without taking an ecosystem approach to ocean management’.1 In short, the ecosystem approach to oceans management has come of age.