N.Z. may gain control of 1 million sea miles

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34127, 13 April 1976, Page 14

N.Z. may gain control of 1 million sea miles

This is the first of several articles by Cedric Mentiplay on the law of the sea.

Within the next few years New Zealand may gain control over the resources of an area of sea and seabed of about 1,400,000 square miles. The United Nations conference on the law of the sea, now sitting in New York, could resolve this as a principle within two months.

When this occurs, New Zealand will have the right to approve applications for licences to fish within this vast area, and to order any fishing boat or fleet without a permit to withdraw. Perhaps more important, the New Zealand Government will have ownership rights to any petroleum products, manganese, copper, nickel, and cobalt found on the seabed within the designated area. This being so, any search for these minerals must first be made known to and approved by the New Zealand Government.

Just how this can be done is already exercising the minds of our political leaders. The recent commotion over the intrusion of a Taiwanese ship fishing within the existing twelve-mile limit is an indication that our fisheryprotection and defence resources may already be overtaxed in keeping a watchful eye on what we have. Before the intruder was brought under control this incident involved an Orion long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, two of the recently-purchased fishery-protection launches, two of our largest naval units (the modified Whitbyclass frigates) and a flight of Skyhawk attack aircraft — in all a large percentage of our total defence equipment.

There is therefore some urgency in reshaping our defence requirements,’ the maritime part of which appears to be centred on convoy protection and the maintenance of trade-routes. Whether or not New Zealand could fulfil even this task adequately is another question. However, it is quite obvious that with present equipment we could not exercise positive control over 1,400,000 miles of sea and island territories beyond our coasts. Long revision The existing law of the sea is demonstrably a shambles of arrogant nationalism and blatant oppor-tunity-seeking. The old theory that “the seas are free” has been some years in abeyance. The rule relating to the three-mile limit — measured in the old days by the distance a coastal battery could fire with accuracy — has been disregarded. For the last six years, the United Nations has been endeavouring to review every aspect of the law of the sea. It began when another United Nations body (the committee on the peaceful uses of the seabed and the ocean floor beyond the limits of national jurisdiction) was instructed to do preparatory work. The first meeting of the conference on the law of the sea met in New York in 1973. In 1974 there was a ten-week session in Caracas, and an eight-week session in Geneva from March 17 to May 10 last year. The present session got under way in New York last week, and is not expected to conclude before early June. Research has disclosed that not even the old threemile limit was universally

recognised. Problems occurred when small European nations confronted each other across a seaway, and these have been reflected in South-East Asia when such nations as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia find themselves in confrontation. Energy crisis The energy crisis, and the revealed existence of vast oilfields and mineral deposits on the seafloor, have complicated matters still further. Coincidentally came the long-range fishing expeditions mounted by Russia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and a small number of other nations. Today it is difficult to decide the main priorities in a discussion on the law of the sea. Here are some of the points which different nations see quite diversely: What is the real meaning of “free passage” and “free overflight”? How far can the larger nations be allowed to survey submerged ocean-routes for their nuclear missile submarines? What is the likelihood of the emplacement of missile bases on the seafloor?

How can the smaller nations curb the operation of the large factory-type fishing-fleets which process everything their electronic nets encompass, leaving ■ lifeless maritime desert behind? How may the various a eas of influence be drawn? Some thirty years ago, the United States issued a proclamation which effectively destroyed what remained of the integrity of the threemile limit. This proclamation stated: “The Government of the United States regards the natural resources of the subsoil and seabed of the continental shelf beneath the high seas, but contiguous to the coast of the United States, as appertaining to the United States, subject to its jurisdiction and control.” A qualification followed: “The character as high seas of the waters above the continental shelf and the right to their free and unimpeded navigation are in no way thus affected.”

The acceptance of this type of claim, and indeed of other claims made by other nations, has a peculiar significance for New Zealand. If the law made by, of, and for one of the big Powers is accepted, then in human justice the same law applies to a small nation. N.Z. claims Let us then take a mapchart of New Zealand and the waters surrounding our main islands — if only to see what we have in relation to the United States proclamation. The result is surprising, even shocking, to the average New Zealander. We are indeed a very big country with a remarkable extensive continental shalf.

There is no doubt that New Zealand needs the protection of a new agreement, universally observed, on the law of the sea.

This would go all the way from the protection of existing fish resources to the safeguarding of our surrounding waters from polution, be it from oil spillage

or the dumping of nuclear waste. Of all the possible solutions so far discussed at the various sessions Of the conference, one has done most to resolve the differences of competing nations. This simply ignores the continental shelf idea, establishes a territorial sea of 12 miles beyond the coastline of each country, and designates the remaining 188 offshore miles, to a total of 200 miles, as an exclusive economic zone to the country concerned. ‘Economic sone* The words “economic zone" denote a new designation. Within this zone all nations would continue to have full navigational and overflight rights, and would even be free to lay cables and pipelines. But the country whose “economic zone” it is acknowledged to be will have sovereign rights for exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing the resources of the seabed, the subsoil, and waters above. This could be what New Zealand will receive, at some date in the future — jurisdiction over 1,400,000 offshore miles. The way this area is reached is simply by taking a 200-mile measurement off the main coastline

of New Zealand, and adding to it similar areas measured by taking 200-mile radii about the Kermadecs, the Chathams, the Bounty and Antipodes Islands, Auckland and Campbell Islands, and several areas of reef and shoal. This huge area is within our grasp, if we can hold it. To do so is of prime import* ance. With this in prospect, any forecasts about the exhaustion of energy resources must be vague and tendentious. But for value any control we have must be positive, based on a measure of strength.