Page 92 - NAVAL SCIENCE 3 TEXTBOOK

I N TER NAT IONA L LAW AND THE SEA 97

Aside from navigational constraints on naval and men:hant The fisheries problem, then, is real and vital to man)' countries.
shipping. strict control of the economic zone could hinder naval Fair and intelligent agreements, both bilnteral and multilateral, arc
scientific and occanographic research. Further. pollution jurisdic- necessary to satisfy the constal states and the distant-water fishing
tion could be used to harass merchant shipping or na\',ll vcssels nations. Along with these, there will have to be a strict application
transiting the areil. of conservation measures, and it is likely that these will have to be
entorced by coastal stOltes under international law designed to ben-
Self-Defense and Fisheries efit everyolle.
In the legal sense, a territorial sea is not a part of the high seas,
The Continental Shelf and Seabeds
even though it is ill a physical and geographic sense. The constal
stnte exercises exclusive jmisdiction-sovereignty-in its territo- Recent technological ad\'ances permitting the exploitation of
rial sens. In contrast, it has only limited preventive or protective the resources of the seabed nnd its subsoil have become matters of
jurisdiction over i.1I1}' economic zone beyond. This may include vital importance to many coastal states. \ Vith the discovery of oil
exploration and exploitntion rights on the continentnl shelf and and minerals in the seabed, nations have tended to assert their exclu-
seabed, fisheries, and self-defense measures. sive rights for exploration and exploitation of them. Tn general, this
Self-defense meilsures arc cnsil}' understood from the stand- activit)' has concentrated on the cOl1tinenttll shelt: but technology
point of internationnllaw. It is n fundamentnl right of a sovereign has ad\'i.lI1ced to the point where exploitation of deep ocean seabeds
state under the law to take all the defensive measures required to is well within the grasp of states with the means to pursue it.
safeguard it's existence, not only in its territorial sea, but also on The Gene\'a COllvention on the Continental Shelf, made effec-
the high seas. The fact that a nation takes action against threats to tive ill 1964, defines COl/til/ental shelf as "the seabed <1l1d subsoil of
its security on the sea be}'ond its territorial jurisdiction docs not the submarine areas ndjacent to the coast, but be}'ond the territo-
metln it is extending its sovereignt}' to that point. The use of force rial sea, to a depth of200 meters [656 feet I. or be)'ond to where the
in this area, howcver, requires that the situntion definitely be a depth of the superjtlcent waters [allows 1 exploitation of the l1<1tU-
threat to the acting nation's security, and that the measures taken ral resources."
to repel the threat be reasonable. Before \Vorld \Var II, for instance, In the past, the bed of the sea could not be occupied b)' an)'
President Franklin Roosevelt declared a Defensive Sea Area beyond state, so the rule was that it was as free as the seas above it. In 1945,
the 3-mile limit and gave orders to sink any Germtln submnrines howcver, President Harry Truman proclnimcd that the United
found in that area. This order w<\s a reasonable measure in view of States regnrded the naturnl resources of the seabed and subsoil
the war in Europe and the t~lCt that neutral ships had already been beneath the high seas contiguolls to its shores to be subject to its
sunk by German submarines in these waters. jurisdiction and control. Since then, the law pertaining to the con-
There have been more disputes over the protection of rights tinental shelf and seabeds has e\'olved.
concerning fisheries than over nny other international maritime Science has determined that in exccss of 100 billion barrels of
issue since \'\'orld \Var 11. Fish have been han'ested from the sc;.\s oil lie under the U.S. continental shelf: compared with 21 billion
since the dawl1 of history, providing humans with food, income, in U.S. proven land reserves. To get the oil OLlt, American COI11-
and adventure. Freedom to fish on the high seas has been a part of panics hnve constructed drilling rigs or derricks in the high seas
customary international law. Since \\'orld \Var II there has been a above the seabed. Geologists also claim that the continental shelf,
stead}' increase in fishing activit)' in all the oceans of the world. New which in some places extends 120 miles Ollt, contains vast quanti-
fishing fleets with fnctory ships serving as mother ships for dozens ties of ores.
of smaller trawlers comb the principal fishing areas of the world. In Tada)'. all countries with continental shelves are in various
n number of cases these tleets have depleted fish stocks to the point stages of exploration and exploitation. and many hav(' been suc-
where importnnt fisheries hnve been lost to the world, perhaps for- cessful. Foremost among these are Mexico and the United States
ever. Conservation has becon\e a fundamental concern. in the Gulf of iViexico; Norway, Scotland, and Britain in the North
Though the concept of exclusive fishing zones for coastal Sea; and the United States off the California coast. The oil rig is
states has become fairly well established, this is not an answer to considered all impediment to navigation on the high seas, so the
the present and future needs of the growing world population. The Continental Shelf Convention specifies that a satet)' zone mllst be
demand for protein is so great tlwt fish resources cannot be allowed established around stich instaUatiol1s tip to;:1 distance of 500 meters
to go ullused in national preserves. Countries engaged in distnnt- (1,640 feet), for the mutual protection of shipping and the instaU,\-
water fishing, including both developed and developing cOllntries, tion itself.
look upon fisheries as a primary means of obtaining food and for- Developing intern<ltionallaw of the sea now recognizes that <1
eign exchange. It appears logicnl and necessary to allow natioJls to coastal state exercises sovereign rights over its continental shelf for
exploit the fisheries of all the sens within prescribed limits. the purpose of exploring and exploiting its natural resources. The