Issues associated with marine and coastal environments include coastal erosion, agricultural and industrial runoff, pollution, ocean acidification and warming, and sea level rise.

Do not include a hyphen in sea level or similar terms when they are used as nouns or adjectives, unless required to avoid ambiguity:

sea level     sea level rise     sea surface temperature 

Use lower case for general terms associated with marine jurisdictional zones, even if the abbreviations use capitals:

extended continental shelf (ECS)     exclusive economic zone (EEZ)     the high seas

Use initial capitals for the formal names of programs and areas:

Joint Petroleum Development Area     Great Australian Bight Marine Park

but lower case for terms that are not formal names:

marine protected areas (MPAs)

Reminder. Just because the abbreviation of a term is made up of capitals, it does not mean that the term has initial capitals when it is spelt out. Also, initial capitals are used only for formal names. Informal and collective (plural) references to the same item do not need capitals.

See also Water.