Oceans Policy is intended to promote the sustainable economic development of marine resources, whilst preserving the integrity of oceans ecosystems and social and cultural values of the oceans.To gain a practical understanding of the issues, barriers and opportunities facing development of economic activities in the ocean this investigation considered only a selection of cases, all pertaining to the energy sector, and representing a temporal spectrum from historic (the discovery and development of the Maui gas and oil field) through contemporary (current oil and gas exploration and development) and near-term (wave and tidal electricity generation) to far-term (gas hydrate mining and conversion). These cases, in turn, spanned the full range of anticipated activities from fully commercial to future-focussed potential activity.