it has been estimated by the world bank that around so million jobs are linked to the oceans through fishing aquaculture coastal and marine tourism and research more than billion people depend on fish for their primary source of protein intake the economic dimension of oceans is encapsulated in the blue or oceans economy concept united nations conference on trade and development unctad and david vivas expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of unctad and commonwealth secretariats