Fisheries Exploitation in the Indian Ocean: Threats and Opportunities

6. Competing Claims to Maritime Jurisdiction in the Indian Ocean: Implications for Regional Marine Biodiversity and Fisheries

104 Clive Schofield 6 COMPETING CLAIMS TO MARITIME JURISDICTION IN THE INDIAN OCEAN Implications for Regional Marine Biodiversity and Fisheries Clive Schofield INTRODUCTION The Indian Ocean encompasses an enormous maritime space that plays host to considerable marine r esources including important marine biodiversity and fisheries resources. Substantial swaths of the Indian Ocean are subject to extensive national claims to maritime jurisdiction. These claims provide coastal states with access to the living and non-living resources of the Indian Ocean thr ough the sover eignty and sover eign rights within their claimed zones of maritime jurisdiction and these claims, therefore, represent tremendous potential maritime opportunities. Ther e are, however, considerable challenges to contend with in terms of r ealizing these opportunities. Indeed, the r esource-related economic benefits that 06 Fisheries Exploitation 10/28/09, 12:41 PM 104 Competing Claims to Maritime Jurisdiction 105 were generally anticipated to flow on fr om these broad maritime claims made by the predominantly developing Indian Ocean coastal states have largely not lived up to initial expectations. This chapter explores the complex mosaic of maritime and territorial claims existing in the Indian Ocean. It pr ovides an overview of the baselines and maritime zones claimed by the Indian Ocean littoral states in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) (United Nations 1983). Particular reference is made to those claims ar guably at odds with the r elevant provisions of LOSC, notably ar guably inappropriate baseline designations and excessive claims to maritime jurisdiction. Additionally, problematic unilateral and historical claims as well as sovereignty disputes over islands, together with their inevitable maritime jurisdictional implications, are examined. The consequences of these factors for the delimitation of maritime boundaries in the Indian Ocean are then considered. The chapter then addresses some of the implications of this complex jurisdictional framework for Indian Ocean marine biodiversity and fisheries in the context of these extensive and complex jurisdictional claims. Clearly , the Indian Ocean littoral states benefit fr om significant maritime opportunities afforded to them thr ough their broad claims to maritime jurisdiction. This is particularly the case in terms of coastal state sover eign rights over biodiversity and living resources within claimed EEZs. There are, however, a number of serious thr eats to marine biodiversity and fisheries in the Indian Ocean Region r elated to national claims to maritime jurisdiction, which are highlighted. These include the problems associated with the inherently highly migratory and thus transboundary natur e of key fish stocks such as tuna in the context of incr easing illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; tensions arising fr om the distinct, and often conflicting, interests of coastal states and distant water fishing states (DWFSs) operating in the Indian Ocean; and challenges r elating to maritime surveillance and enfor cement against a backgr ound of concerns over management capacity among developing states and jurisdictional uncertainty arising from excessive or conflicting maritime claims, lack of boundary delimitation, and maritime boundary disputes. These issues ar e examined and some brief observations and r eflections are offered on potential ways forward — for example, options to overcome jurisdictional barriers to maritime enfor cement, notably thr ough cooperation acr oss agreed maritime boundaries. 06 Fisheries Exploitation 10/28/09, 12:41 PM 105 106 Clive Schofield GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT For the purposes of the present discussion, the Indian Ocean is defined as being bounded by the east coast of Africa, the south-east coast of Arabia, the southern Asian littoral, and the western coasts of the Indonesian archipelago and Australia. The limits of the Indian Ocean, therefore, proceed in a gr eat arc from the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of theAfrican continent, northwards to the Bab al Mandeb, north-eastwards to the Strait of Hormuz, eastwar ds to the Straits of Malacca and along the fringes of the Indonesian archipelago, and then south along the west coast of Australia. This definition, ther efore, excludes the Red Sea and Persian/Arabian Gulf, but includes the Arabian and Andaman Seas, the Bay of Bengal, and the T imor and Arafura Seas as far as the Torres Strait. Southwards, the Indian Ocean is deemed to extend to an irr egular chain of sub-Antar ctic islands, notably South Africa’s Prince Edwar d Islands, France’s Ker guelan Islands, and the Australian external territories of the Hear d and McDonald Islands. The Indian Ocean states considered...