Denmark, Norway and others followed suit in the North Sea, whereas Chile, Peru and Ecuador expanded their fishing zones to fend off pilfering by foreign ships. In 1945 America claimed exclusive rights to its continental shelf and soon began drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The League of Nations, a forerunner to the UN, made a first attempt to broker a deal in 1930. UNCLOS was the result of decades of negotiation. The rest of the oceans are international waters, where all countries have much more freedom. Beyond these rings, countries can claim rights to their continental shelf (rock jutting out from their land below the surface of the sea) though not to the water above it. Where countries are close together and claims overlap, the boundary is normally set midway between them. Here states have sole rights to drilling, fishing and mining. Next comes the largest swathe, the exclusive economic zone, extending up to 200 nautical miles from the coast. Beyond this is up to 12 nautical miles of buffer space, known as the contiguous zone. Countries can claim up to 12 nautical miles of territorial sea: ships from other countries can sail freely through, but cannot fish, carry out military exercises or do scientific research. Countries have absolute authority here: no ship can pass through without permission, except on official sea lanes, and domestic laws apply as they do on land.įrom this zone, claims on the sea radiate out in rings of diminishing sovereignty. Any water enclosed within this line, whether fresh or salty, is classed as inland water.
For countries attached to a continental land mass, like Italy, it roughly tracks the coast for archipelagoes, like Indonesia, it skirts the farthest islands. Countries calculate their maritime claims according to a simplified outline of their territory. Since 1982 oceans have been governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). However, this matters less than may be expected. Today land is still the basis of claims over the sea, and with countries projecting their military and economic power farther across the waves, competing claims have left the oceans fraught with disputes: 39% of sea boundaries are yet to be agreed. Countries could claim sovereignty as far as they could defend from the shore. In the 17th century, this was the basis for maritime boundaries. A CANNON SHOT fired from the coast can hit a ship three nautical miles out to sea.
0 kommentar(er)
