B.3.5 Sovereignty Rights and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) Notes

Territorial Waters: Sovereignty at Sea

1. This means the country controls everything: the water, the airspace above, and the seabed below.
2. For example, a country can regulate shipping, enforce laws, and exploit natural resources in its territorial waters.
3. However, foreign ships are allowed innocent passage, the right to pass through these waters as long as they don’t engage in activities like fishing or military exercises.

Why Are Territorial Waters Important?

1. Territorial waters are vital for protecting a nation’s coastline and regulating activities that affect its shores.
2. For instance, a country can monitor pollution from passing ships, prevent illegal fishing, or respond to security threats.

Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs): Balancing Sovereignty and Resources

1. Unlike territorial waters, an EEZ does not grant full sovereignty.
2. Other countries can freely navigate, conduct scientific research, or lay submarine cables, but they cannot exploit resources without permission.

EEZs Are Essential for Managing Marine Resources

1. EEZs are essential for managing marine resources.
2. Nearly 90% of the world’s known offshore oil reserves and 98% of major fishing grounds are within EEZs, making them economically and strategically significant.

Conflicts Over Ocean Resources

1. What happens when two countries’ EEZs overlap?
2. This is common in areas where coastlines are close together, such as the South China Sea.
3. In these cases, countries must negotiate boundaries, but disputes often arise.

Resource Extraction: Who Owns What?

1. Disputes also emerge over shared resources.
2. Fish stocks, for example, often migrate across EEZ boundaries, leading to conflicts over fishing rights.
3. Similarly, oil and gas reserves that straddle two EEZs can spark disagreements over who has the right to extract them.

Case study

The Arctic

1. The Arctic is a prime example of competing claims.
2. Unlike for Antarctica, there is no separate international treaty regulating the status of the Arctic. There is, however, the Arctic Council composed of eight Arctic countries (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, United States) fostering cooperation between these countries.
3. As sea ice recedes due to climate change, countries are rushing to stake their claims on the seabed, believed to hold up to 90 billion barrels of oil and vast natural gas reserves.
4. The melting ice is also opening new shipping routes, such as the Northwest Passage, increasing the region’s strategic importance.

Managing Ocean Resources: Challenges and Solutions

Challenges

1. Overfishing: Many fish stocks are overexploited, threatening marine biodiversity and coastal economies.
2. Pollution: Oil spills, plastic waste, and chemical runoff degrade marine ecosystems.
3. Climate Change: Rising sea temperatures and acidification harm coral reefs and other marine habitats.
4. Enforcement: Policing vast EEZs is difficult, especially in remote or poorly monitored areas.

Solutions

1. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs): Designating zones where fishing and resource extraction are restricted helps conserve marine biodiversity.
2. International Cooperation: Agreements like UNCLOS provide a framework for resolving disputes and managing shared resources.
3. Sustainable Practices: Encouraging responsible fishing, renewable energy development, and pollution control can reduce environmental impacts.

Reflection and Broader Implications

1. Why do disputes over EEZs tend to occur in resource-rich regions, such as the South China Sea or the Arctic?
2. How might climate change affect the boundaries and management of EEZs in the coming decades?
3. Should environmental protection take precedence over economic exploitation in ocean management?