United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

The Convention was opened for signature on 10 December

1982 in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
This marked the culmination of more than 14 years of work involving
participation by more than 150 countries representing all regions of the
world

It lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in

the world's oceans and seas establishing rules governing
all uses of the oceans and their resources.
One of key features of the Convention is that all States enjoy the
traditional freedoms of navigation, overflight, scientific research and
fishing on the high seas; they are obliged to adopt, or cooperate with other
States in adopting, measures to manage and conserve living resources

With regard to fisheries

The Convention establishes a regime for the conservation and
management of fisheries resources on the basis of:
a) the area they occupy (the internal waters, archipelagic waters, and
territorial seas, exclusive economic zones, continental shelf areas and
high seas)
b)
the types of fish stocks (straddling stocks, highly migratory species,
marine mammals, anadromous stocks and catadromous species) that
occur in them.

Basic responsibilities of states:

1) They are required to conserve and manage living marine resources in the
areas that are within their jurisdiction or the areas over which they exercise
sovereign rights.
2) They are required to cooperate to conserve and manage specific stocks,
particularly straddling fish stocks and highly migratory species without
prejudice to the rights of the coastal state where such stocks occur within their
jurisdiction or in areas where the coastal state exercises sovereign rights.

The EEZ
It is a region that stretches a distance of no more than
200 nautical miles from a nation's baselines.
Within its EEZ, a nation may explore at exploit the natural resources
(both living and inanimate) found both in the water and on the seabed

Why 200-mile limit?

It is derived from the fact that the most lucrative fishing grounds lie
within 200 nautical miles from the coast as this is where the richest
phytoplankton (the basic food of fish) pastures lie.
the EEZs contain almost 99% of the world's fisheries, which allows
nations to work to conserve the oceans vital and limited living
resources.

The High Seas

Waters beyond a nation's EEZ are considered to be the
high seas.
The high seas are still governed the "freedom of the seas" concept,
albeit a modified version.
nations are permitted freedom of navigation and overflight, freedom to
lay submarine cables and pipelines, freedom to construct artificial
islands, freedom of fishing, and freedom of scientific research.

No nation is allowed to lay claim to any part of it or its

resources.
All rights in the resources of the Area are vested in mankind as a
whole.
Companies that wish to exploit the mineral resources of the Area will
have to enter into a profit sharing agreement in which the profits derived
from mineral resources captured in the Area will be shared with
developing nations.

Fishing Rights (Part V and Part VII)

I. EEZ (Part V)
Coastal nations have primary control over the fish
stocks in their EEZ (Article 56, Section 1a).
Primary Responsibilities of the state (Article 61, Section
3 and 5)
1) The coastal state is required to maintain the existing stock and
protect.
2) The coastal state gets to determine the maximum allowable catch for
a given species.
*In addition, Article 62, Section 4a provides for the licensing of
fishermen, fishing vessels and equipment that must be followed
by other States fishing consistent with the laws and regulations
of the coastal state.

Fishing Rights (Part V and Part VII)

I. EEZ (Part V)
Fish, however, do not recognize manmade boundaries.
This is why UNCLOS provided special rules these
species of fish.
1)Species that migrate within the EEZs of multiple coastal nation
(Highly Migratory, Article 64)
Those nations are obligated to come to agreement on the
conservation and development of such stocks.
Nations engaged in fishing for these highly migratory species are
required to cooperate with one another to maintain appropriate levels of
these stock and to make sure that they are not overfished.

Fishing Rights (Part V and Part VII)

I. EEZ (Part V)
2) Fish species that migrate between internal waters and
marine waters as part of their breeding cycle
a. Anadromous species, those that spawn in fresh water
and later migrate toward marine waters (Article 66).
The primarily the responsibility of the nation in whose rivers the fish
originate. The nation of origin is allowed to determine the allowable
catch for these species.

b. Catadromous species, those that live in fresh water

and migrate to marine waters to spawn (Article 67).
The primarily the responsibility of the coastal nation. Harvesting of
these fish is limited to the EEZ.

Fishing Rights (Part V and Part VII)

I. High Seas(Part VII. Section 16)
All nations have the right to fish on the high seas
subject to their treaty obligations.
Nations have a duty to take measures to ensure the
conservation of living resources on the high seas.
Nations who are fishing for the same species or
different species within the same area of the high seas
are supposed to work together to conserve and protect
the species from over-exploitation.