Can a corporation own the ocean? More and more of our roads, bridges and airports are being sold to private corporations. Now a corporation wants to own a piece of the ocean. OceanWorks Development is asserting that they have the exclusive right to 40,000 square miles off the Southern California coast. They have sent notice to more than a dozen federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of the Interior, and Army Corps of Engineers, asserting the right to the water from three to 200 miles out, and from Santa Barbara to the U.S.-Mexico border. Adam Englund, CEO of OceanWorks Development, asserts his firm's approach is similar to miners’ claims in earlier centuries, where they staked claims to frontier lands for the purpose of one-day extracting minerals. He said, "If nobody challenges -- and they are on notice -- over a period of time that claim becomes your own."

While many have expressed skepticism for OceanWorks Development scheme, Bill Slomanson, instructor of international law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, said there is a chance the effort could be successful. OceanWorks Development wants to use the portion of the ocean they are claiming to build an offshore airport. The airport would be secured to the ocean floor and would be accessed by a 10-mile light-rail tunnel, built 1,200 feet under the water. Construction of the airport would take place in China and the airport would be towed across the ocean, and then pieced together. Offshore airports are not a new thing; Japan has five. However, they all have an above-ground connection with the mainland.

This is the time we have to ask ourselves as a people, what we will not sell off? Will there be anything we hold in the common good? When we go to the beach, do we want to look across the horizon, our view of the sunset blocked by the silhouettes of high-rises, homes, shopping malls, and airports. Is there some part of our world we don’t want to sell to corporations so they can make a profit from them? If OceanWorks Development succeeds in their claim, you can expect the rest of our oceans sold to the highest bidder.